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The Person and Work 
of 
The Holy Spirit 


By R. A. TORREY, D.D. 


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131 


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-FR 9 19Onr 
5d = OO Be 


The Person and ICAL SEN” 
of 


The Holy Spirit 


As Revealed in the Scriptures 
And in Personal Experience 


By 
Riera de Tvs 


New York CHICAGO TORONTO 
bem mo eho ove Company 


LONDON AND EDINBURGH 


Copyright, 1910, by 
R. A. TORREY 


New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue 
Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street 


Contents 


Tue PERSONALITY OF THE Hoty Spirit : 
Tue Deity oF THE Hoty Spirit t y 


Tue DisTincTion OF THE Hoty Spirit FROM 
THE FaTHER AND FROM His Son, Jesus 
CHRIST ( } : 4 \ ! 


THE SUBORDINATION OF THE SPIRIT TO THE 
FaTHER AND TO THE SON i : rf 


THe Person anp WorkK OF THE Ho ty Spirir 
AS REVEALED IN His Names . 4 ‘ 


Toe Work of THE Hoty Spirit IN THE 
MareriaL UNIVERSE j } ; ; 


THe Hoty Spirir Convictinc THE Worip 
OF Sin, OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND OF JUDGMENT 


Tue Hoty Spirir Bearinc Witness To Jesus 
CurisT : ; : ’ : ‘ 


THe ReceneraTinc Work oF THE Hoty 
SPIRIT. : ; ‘ ! : i 


THe [NDWELLING Sprrir FULLY AND FoREVER 
SATISFYING . ‘ . . 


THe Hory Sprreit Serrinc THE BELIEVER 
FREE FROM THE Power oF INDWELLING SIN 


Tue Hoy Spirir Forminc Curist WITHIN 


Us { ; , ; : h P 


Tue Hoty Spirit Braincinc Fortu In THE BE- 
LIEVER CHRISTLIKE GRACES OF CHARACTER 


Tue Hory Spirit Guipinc THE BELIEVER 
INTO A LirE asa Son . ; : 


5 


#7 


81 


94 


IO! 


116 


122 


127 


131 


Contents 


Tue Hoty Spirir Bearinc Witness TO Our 
SONSHIP 


Tue Hoty Spirit as A TEACHER 


Prayinc, Rerurninc THanks, WorsHip- 
PING IN THE Hoty SPIRIT 


Tue Hoty Spirit Senpinc Men Fortu To 
DEFINITE Lines oF WorkK 


Tue Hoty Spirir AND THE BELIEVER’s Bopy 
Tue BAapTisM WITH THE Hoty SpiriT . 


Ture Work oF THE Hoty Spirit 1n PROPHETS 
AND APOSTLES 


Tue Worx of THE Hoty Spirit in Jesus 
CurIsT ’ 


136 
141 


153 


159 
169 


171 
247 


257 


The Person and Work 
Of the Holy Spirit 


I 
The Personality of the Holy Spirit 


EFORE one can correctly understand the work 
of the Holy Spirit, he must first of all know 


the Spirit Himself. A frequent source of error 
and fanaticism about the work of the Holy Spirit is the 
attempt to study and understand His work without first 
of all coming to know Him as a Person. 

It is of the highest importance from the standpoint 
of worship that we decide whether the Holy Spirit is a 
Divine Person, worthy to receive our adoration, our 
faith, our love, and our entire surrender to Himself, or 
whether it is simply an influence emanating from God 
or a power or an illumination that God imparts to us, 
If the Holy Spirit is a person, and a Divine Person, and 
we do not know Him as such, then we are robbing 
a Divine Being of the worship and the faith and 
the love and the surrender to Himself which are His 
due. 

It is also of the highest importance from the practical 
standpoint that we decide whether the Holy Spirit is 

7 


8 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


merely some mysterious and wonderful power that we 
in our weakness and ignorance are somehow to get hold 
of and use, or whether the Holy Spirit is a real Person, 
infinitely holy, infinitely wise, infinitely mighty and in- 
finitely tender who is to get hold of and use us. The 
former conception is utterly heathenish, not essentially 
different from the thought of the African fetich wor- 
shipper who has his god whom he uses. The latter 
conception is sublime and Christian. If we think of 
the Holy Spirit as so many do as merely a power or in- 
fluence, our constant thought will be, ‘*‘ How can I get 
more of the Holy Spirit,” but if we think of Him in the 
Biblical way as a Divine Person, our thought will rather 
be, “* How can the Holy Spirit have more of me?” 
The conception of the Holy Spirit as a Divine influ- 
ence or power that we are somehow to get hold of and 
use, leads to self-exaltation and self-sufficiency. One 
who so thinks of the Holy Spirit and who at the same 
time imagines that he has received the Holy Spirit will 
almost inevitably be full of spiritual pride and strut 
about as if he belonged to some superior order of Chris- 
tians. One frequently hears such persons say, ‘“‘I am 
a Holy Ghost man,” or “I am a Holy Ghost woman.” 
But if we once grasp the thought that the Holy Spirit 
is a Divine Person of infinite majesty, glory and holi- 
ness and power, who in marvellous condescension has 
come into our hearts to make His abode there and take 
possession of our lives and make use of them, it will 
put us in the dust and keep us in the dust. I can 
think of no thought more humbling or more over- 
whelming than the thought that a person of Divine 


The Personality of the Holy Spirit 9 


majesty and glory dwells in my heart and is ready to 
use even me. 

It is of the highest importance from the standpoint 
of experience that we know the Holy Spirit as a person. 
Thousands and tens of thousands of men and women 
can testify to the blessing that has come into their own 
lives as they have come to know the Holy Spirit, not 
merely as a gracious influence (emanating, it is true, 
from God) but as a real Person, just as real as Jesus 
Christ Himself, an ever-present, loving Friend and 
mighty Helper, who is not only always by their side 
but dwells in their heart every day and every hour 
and who is ready to undertake for them in every emer- 
gency of life. “Thousands of ministers, Christian 
workers and Christians in the humblest spheres of life 
have spoken to me, or written to me, of the complete 
transformation of their Christian experience that came 
to them when they grasped the thought (not merely in 
a theological, but in an experimental way) that the 
Holy Spirit was a Person and consequently came to 
know Him. 

There are at least four distinct lines of proof in the 
Bible that the Holy Spirit is a person. 


I. All the distinctive characteristics of personality are 
ascribed to the Holy Spirit in the Bible. 

What are the distinctive characteristics, or marks, of 
personality? Knowledge, feeling or emotion, and will. 
Any entity that thinks and feels and wills is a person. 
When we say that the Holy Spirit is a person, there 
are those who understand us to mean that the Holy 


10 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


Spirit has hands and feet and eyes and ears and mouth, 
and so on, but these are not the characteristics of per- 
sonality but of corporeity. All of these characteristics 
or marks of personality are repeatedly ascribed to the 
Holy Spirit in the Old and New Testaments. We read 
in 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11, “ But God hath revealed them 
unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all 
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man 
knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man 
which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth 
no man, but the Spirit of God.” Here knowledge is 
ascribed to the Holy Spirit. We are clearly taught 
that the Holy Spirit is not merely an influence that illu- 
minates our minds to comprehend the truth but a Being 
who Himself knows the truth. 

In 1 Cor. xii. 11, we read, ‘‘ But all these worketh 
that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man 
severally as He will.” Here will is ascribed to the 
Spirit and we are taught that the Holy Spirit is not a 
power that we get hold of and use according to our 
will but a Person of sovereign majesty, who uses us 
according to His will. This distinction is of funda- 
mental importance in our getting into right relations 
with the Holy Spirit. It is at this very point that many 
honest seekers after power and efficiency in service go 
astray. [hey are reaching out after and struggling to 
get possession of some mysterious and mighty power 
that they can make use of in their work according to 
their own will. They will never get possession of the 
power they seek until they come to recognize that there 
is not some Divine power for them to get hold of and 


The Personality of the Holy Spirit 11 


use in their blindness and ignorance but that there is a 
Person, infinitely wise, as well as infinitely mighty, who 
is willing to take possession of them and use them ac- 
cording to His own perfect will. When we stop to 
think of it, we must rejoice that there is no Divine 
power that beings so ignorant as we are, so liable to 
err, to get hold of and use. How appalling might be 
the results if there were. But what a holy joy must 
come into our hearts when we grasp the thought that 
there is a Divine Person, One who never errs, who is 
willing to take possession of us and impart to us such 
gifts as He sees best and to use us according to His 
wise and loving will. 

We read in Rom. viii. 27, “¢ And He that searcheth 
the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, 
because He maketh intercession for the saints accord- 
ing to the will of God.” In this passage mind is 
ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The Greek word trans- 
lated “mind” is a comprehensive word, including the 
ideas of thought, feeling and purpose. It is the same 
that is used in Rom. viii. 7 where we read that “the 
carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not 
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” 
So then in this passage we have all the distinctive marks 
of personality ascribed to the Holy Spirit. 

We find the personality of the Holy Spirit brought 
out in a most touching and suggestive way in Rom. xv. 
30, *¢ Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus 
Christ’s sake, and for the Jove of the Spirit, that ye 
strive together with me in your prayers to God for 


> 


me.” Here we have “ Jove” ascribed to the Holy Spirit. 


12 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


The reader would do well to stop and ponder those five 
words, ‘ the love of the Spirit.” We dwell often upon 
the love of God the Father. It is the subject of our 
daily and constant thought. We dwell often upon the 
love of Jesus Christ the Son. Who would think of 
calling himself a Christian who passed a day without 
meditating on the love of his Saviour, but how often 
have we meditated upon “‘ the love of the Spirit’??? Each 
day of our lives, if we are living as Christians ought, 
we kneel down in the presence of God the Father and 
look up into His face and say, “‘ I thank Thee, Father, 
for Thy great love that led Thee to give Thine only 
begotten Son to die upon the cross of Calvary for me.” 
Each day of our lives we also look up into the face of 
our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and say, “ Oh, 
Thou glorious Lord and Saviour, Jesus Thou Son of 
God, I thank Thee for Thy great love that led Thee 
not to count it a thing to be grasped to be on equality 
with God but to empty Thyself and forsaking all the 
glory of heaven, come down to earth with all its shame 
and to take my sins upon Thyself and die in my place 
upon the cross of Calvary.” But how often do we 
kneel and say to the Holy Spirit, “ Oh, Thou eternal 
and infinite Spirit of God, I thank Thee for Thy great 
love that led Thee to come into this world of sin and 
darkness and to seek me out and to follow me so pa- 
tiently until Thou didst bring me to see my utter ruin 
and need of a Saviour and to reveal to me my Lord 
and Saviour, Jesus Christ, as just the Saviour whom I 
need.” Yet we owe our salvation just as truly to 
the love of the Spirit as we do to the love of the 


The Personality of the Holy Spirit 13 


Father and the love of the Son. If it had not been 
for the love of God the Father looking down upon me 
in my utter ruin and providing a perfect atonement for 
me in the death of His own Son on the cross of Cal- 
vary, I would have been in hell to-day. If it had not 
been for the love of Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of 
God, looking upon me in my utter ruin and in obedi- 
ence to the Father, putting aside all the glory of heaven 
for all the shame of earth and taking my place, the 
place of the curse, upon the cross of Calvary and 
pouring out His life utterly for me, I would have been 
in hell to-day. But if it had not been for the love of 
the Holy Spirit, sent by the Father in answer to the 
prayer of the Son (John xiv. 16) leading Him to seek 
me out in my utter blindness and ruin and to follow 
me day after day, week after week, and year after year, 
when I persistently turned a deaf ear to His pleadings, 
following me through paths of sin where it must have 
been agony for that holy One to go, until at last 
I listened and He opened my eyes to see my utter ruin 
and then revealed Jesus to me as just the Saviour that 
would meet my every need and then enabled me to 
receive this Jesus as my own Saviour; if it had not 
been for this patient, long-suffering, mever-tiring, 
infinitely-tender love of the Holy Spirit, I would have 
been in hell to-day. Oh, the Holy Spirit is not merely 
an influence or a power or an illumination but is a 
Person just as real as God the Father or Jesus Christ 
His Son. 

The personality of the Holy Spirit comes out in the 
Old Testament as truly as in the New, for we read in 


14 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


Neh, ix. 20, “Thou gavest also Thy good Spirit to 
instruct them, and withheldest not Thy manna from 
their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst.” 
Here both intelligence and goodness are ascribed to the 
Holy Spirit. “There are some who tell us that while it 
is true the personality of the Holy Spirit is found in 
the New Testament, it is not found in the Old. But 
it is certainly found in this passage. As a matter 
of course, the doctrine of ‘the personality of the 
Holy Spirit is not as fully developed in the Old 
Testament as in the New. But the doctrine is 
there. 

There is perhaps no passage in the entire Bible in 
which the personality of the Holy Spirit comes out 
more tenderly and touchingly than in Eph. iv. 30, 
‘‘And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye 
are sealed unto the day of redemption.” Here grief is 
ascribed to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not a 
blind, impersonal influence or power that comes into 
our lives to illuminate, sanctify and empower them. 
No, He is immeasurably more than that, He is a holy 
Person who comes to dwell in our hearts, One who 
sees clearly every act we perform, every word we 
speak, every thought we entertain, even the most fleet- 
ing fancy that is allowed to pass through our minds; 
and if there is anything in act, or word or deed that is 
impure, unholy, unkind, selfish, mean, petty or untrue, 
this infinitely holy One is deeply grieved by it. I 
know of no thought that will help one more than this 
to lead a holy life and to walk softly in the presence of 
the holy One. How often a young man is kept back 


The Personality of the Holy Spirit 15 


from yielding to the temptations that surround young 
manhood by the thought that if he should yield to the 
temptation that now assails him, his holy mother might 
hear of it and would be grieved by it beyond expres- 
sion. How often some young man has had his hand 
upon the door of some place of sin that he is about to 
enter and the thought has come to him, “If I should 
enter. there, my mother might hear of it and it would 
nearly kill her,’ and he has turned his back upon that 
door and gone away to lead a pure life, that he might 
not grieve his mother. But there is One who is 
holier than any mother, One who is more sensitive 
against sin than the purest woman who ever walked 
this earth, and who loves us as even no mother ever 
loved, and this One dwells in our hearts, if we are 
really Christians, and He sees every act we do by day or 
under cover of the night; He hears every word we 
utter in public or in private; He sees every thought we 
entertain, He beholds every fancy and imagination that 
is permitted even a momentary lodgment in our mind, 
and if there is anything unholy, impure, selfish, mean, 
petty, unkind, harsh, unjust, or in anywise evil in act 
or word or thought or fancy, He is grieved by it. If 
we will allow those words, ‘“‘ Grieve not the Holy 
Spirit of God,” to sink into our hearts and become the 
motto of our lives, they will keep us from many a sin. 
How often some thought or fancy has knocked for an 
entrance into my own mind and was about to find enter- 
tainment when the thought has come, ‘“¢ The Holy 
Spirit sees that thought and will be grieved by it” and 
that thought has gone. 


+3 


16 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


Il. Many acts that only a Person can perform are 
ascribed to the Holy Spirit. 

If we deny the personality of the Holy Spirit, many 
Passages of Scripture become meaningless and absurd. 
For example, we read in 1 Cor. ii: To, ** But God hath 
revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit 
searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” 
This passage sets before us the Holy Spirit, not merely 
as an illumination whereby we are enabled to grasp the 
deep things of God, but a Person who Himself searches 
the deep things of God and then reveals to us the 
precious discoveries which He has made. 

We read in Rev. ii. 7, ‘He that hath an ear, let 
him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To 
him that overcometh will | give to eat of the tree of 
life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” 
Here the Holy Spirit is set before us, not merely as an 
impersonal enlightenment that comes to our mind but 
a Person who speaks and out of the depths of His own 
wisdom, whispers into the ear of His listening servant 
the precious truth of God. 

In Gal. iv. 6 we read, ‘* And because ye are sons, 
God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your 
hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” Here the Holy Spirit 
is represented as crying out in the heart of the individ- 
ual believer. Not merely a Divine influence produc- 
ing in our own hearts the assurance of our sonship but 
one who cries out in our hearts, who bears witness 
together with our spirit that we are sons of God. 
(See also Rom. viii. 16.) 

The Holy Spirit is also represented in the Scripture 


The Personality of the Holy Spirit 17 


as one who prays. We read in Rom. viii. 26, R. V., 
“And in like manner the Spirit also helpeth our infirm- 
ity ; for we know not how to pray as we ought; but 
the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with 
groanings which cannot be uttered.” It is plain from 
this passage that the Holy Spirit is not merely an influ- 
ence that moves us to pray, not merely an illumination 
that teaches us how to pray, but a Person who Himself 
prays in and through us. ‘There is wondrous comfort 
in the thought that every true believer has two Divine 
Persons praying for him, Jesus Christ, the Son who 
was once upon this earth, who knows all about our 
temptations, who can be touched with the feeling of 
our infirmities and who is now ascended to the right 
hand of the Father and in that place of authority and 
power ever lives to make intercession for us (Heb. 
vil. 25; 1 John ii. 1); and another Person, just as 
Divine as He, who walks by our side each day, yes, 
who dwells in the innermost depths of our being and 
knows our needs, even as we do not know them our- 
selves, and from these depths makes intercession to the 
Father for us. The position of the believer is indeed 
one of perfect security with these two Divine Persons 
praying for him. 

We read again in John xv. 26, ‘“ But when the 
Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from 
the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth 
from the Father, He shall testify of Me.’ Here the 
Holy Spirit is set before us as a Person who gives His 
testimony to Jesus Christ, not merely as an illumina- 
tion that enables the believer to testify of Christ, but 


18 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


a Person who Himself testifies; and a clear distinction 
is drawn in this and the following verse between the 
testimony of the Holy Spirit and the testimony of the 
believer to whom He has borne His witness, for we 
read in the next verse, ** And ye also shall bear witness, 
because ye have been with Me from the beginning.” 
So there are two witnesses, the Holy Spirit bearing 
witness to the believer and the believer bearing witness 
to the world. 

The Holy Spirit is also spoken of asateacher. We 
read in John xiv. 26, ‘ But the Comforter, which is 
the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My 
name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things 
to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto 
you.” And in a similar way, we read in John xvi. 
12-14, “SI have yet many things to say unto you, but 
ye cannot bear them now. MHowbeit when He, the 
Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all 
truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but what- 
soever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will 
show you things to come. He shall glorify Me: for 
He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you.” 
And in the Old Testament, Neh. ix. 20, ‘Thou 
gavest also Thy good Spirit to instruct them.”’ In all 
these passages it is perfectly clear that the Holy Spirit 
is not a mere illumination that enables us to apprehend 
the truth, but a Person who comes to us to teach us day 
by day the truth of God. It is the privilege of the 
humblest believer in Jesus Christ not merely to have his 
mind illumined to comprehend the truth of God, but to 
-have a Divine Teacher to daily teach him the truth he 


The Personality of the Holy aA Ad he 


needs to know (cf. 1 Johnii. 20,27). The Holy Spirit is 
also represented as the Leader and Guide of the 
children of God. We read in Rom. viii. 14, “ For 
as many as are /ed by the Spirit of God they are the 
sons of God.” He is not merely an influence that 
enables us to see the way that God would have us go, nor 
merely a power that gives us strength to go that way, 
but a Person who takes us by the hand and gently 
leads us on in the paths in which God would have us 
walk. 

The Holy Spirit is also represented as a Person who 
has authority to command men in their service of 
Jesus Christ. We read of the Apostle Paul and his 
companions in Acts xvi. 6, 7, “Now when they had 
gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, 
and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the 
Word in Asia, after they were come to Mysia, they as- 
sayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them 
not.” Here it is a Person who takes the direction of 
the conduct of Paul and his companions and a Person 
whose authority they recognized and to whom they in- 
stantly submit. 

Further still than this the Holy Spirit is represented 
as the One who is the supreme authority in the church, 
who calls men to work and appoints them to office. 
We read in Acts xiii. 2, “As they ministered to the 
Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate Me 
Barnabas and Saul for the work where unto I have 
called them.” And in Acts xx. 28, Take heed 
therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the 
which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to 


20 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased 
with His own blood.’ ‘There can be no doubt to a 
candid seeker after truth that it is a Person, and a per- 
son of Divine majesty and sovereignty, who is here set 
before us. 

From all the passages here quoted, it is evident that 
many acts that only a person can perform are ascribed 
to the Holy Spirit. 


III. An office ts predicated of the Holy Spirit that can 
only be predicated of a person. 

Our Saviour says in John xiv. 16, 17, “And I 
will pray the Father, and He shall give you another 
Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; 
Even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot re- 
ceive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: 
but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and 
shall be in you.’ Our Lord had announced to the 
disciples that He was about to leave them. An awful 
sense of desolation took possession of them. Sorrow 
filléd their hearts (John xvi. 6) at the contemplation 
of their loneliness and absolute helplessness when Jesus 
should thus leave them alone. To comfort them the 
Lord tells them that they shall not be left alone, that 
in leaving them He was going to the Father and that 
He would pray the Father and He would give them 
another Comforter to take the place of Himself during 
His absence. Is it possible that Jesus Christ could 
have used such language if the other Comforter who 
was coming to take His place was only an impersonal 
influence or power? Still more, is it possible that 


The Personality of the Holy Spirit 21 


Jesus could have said as He did in John xvi. 7, 
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth: J¢ is expedient for 
you that I go away. for if I go not away, the Com- 
forter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will 
send Him unto you,” if this Comforter whom He was 
to send was simply an impersonal influence or power? 
No, one Divine Person was going, another Person just 
as Divine was coming to take His place, and it was 
expedient for the disciples that the One go to repre- 
sent them before the Father, for another just as Divine 
and sufficient was coming to take His place. This 
promise of our Lord and Saviour of the coming of the 
other Comforter and of His abiding with us is the 
greatest and best of all for the present dispensation. 
This is the promise of the Father (Acts i. 4), the 
promise of promises. We shall take it up again when 
we come to study the names of the Holy Spirit. 


IV. A treatment ts predicated to the Holy Spirit that 
could only be predicated of a Person. 

We read in Isa, Ixili. 10, R. V., ‘ But they rebelled 
and grieved His Holy Spirit : therefore He was turned 
to be their enemy, and He fought against them.” Here 
we are told that the Holy Spirit is rebelled against and 
grieved (cf. Eph. iv. 30). Only a person can be re- 
belled against and only a person of authority. Only 
a person can be grieved. You cannot grieve a mere 
influence or power. In Heb. x. 29, we read, “ Of 
how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be 
thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son 
of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, 


22 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and 
hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?”? Here we 
are told that the Holy Spirit is “done despite unto ” 
(“treated with contumely ”—Thayer’s Greek-English 
Lexicon of the New Testament). There is but one 
kind of entity in the universe that can be treated with 
contumely (or insulted) and that is a person. It is 
absurd to think of treating an influence or a power or 
any kind of being except a person with contumely. 
We read again in Acts v. 3, ‘¢ But Peter said, Ananias, 
why hath Satan filled thine heart zo /ie to the Holy Ghost, 
and to keep back part of the price of the land?”’ Here 
we have the Holy Spirit represented as one who can be 
lied to. One cannot lie to anything but a person. 

In Matt. xii. 31, 32, we read, “ Wherefore | say 
unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be 
forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the 
Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And 
whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it 
shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against 
the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither 
in this world, neither in the world to come.” Here we 
are told that the Holy Spirit is blasphemed against. It 
is impossible to blaspheme anything but a person. If 
the Holy Spirit is not a person, it certainly cannot 
be a more serious and decisive sin to blaspheme Him 
than it is to blaspheme the Son of man, our Lord and 
Saviour, Jesus Christ Himself. 

Here then we have four distinctive and decisive 
lines of proof that the Holy Spirit is a Person. Theoret- 
ically most of us believe this but do we, in our real 


The Personality of the Holy Spirit 23 


thought of Him and in our practical attitude towards 
Him treat Him as if He were indeed a Person? At 
the close of an address on the Personality of the Holy 
Spirit at a Bible conference some years ago, one who 
had been a church-member many years, a member of 
one of the most orthodox of our modern denomina- 
tions, said to me, “I never thought of /¢ before as a 
Person.” Doubtless this Christian woman had often 
sung : 


“¢ Praise God from whom all blessings flow, 
Praise Him all creatures here below, 
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host, 
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.” 


Doubtless she had often sung: 


««Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to 
the Holy Ghost, 
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever 
shall be, 
World without end, Amen.”’ 


But it is one thing to sing words; it is quite another 
thing to realize the meaning of what we sing. If this 
Christian woman had been questioned in regard to her 
doctrine, she would doubtless have said that she believed 
that there were three Persons in the Godhead, Father, 
Son and Holy Spirit, but a theological confession is one 
thing, a practical realization of the truth we confess is 
quite another. So the question is altogether necessary, 
no matter how orthodox you may be in your creedal 
statements, Do you regard the Holy Spirit as indeed as 
real a Person as Jesus Christ, as loving and wise and 


24 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


strong, as worthy of your confidence and love and 
surrender as Jesus Christ Himself? The Holy Spirit 
came into this world to be to the disciples of our Lord 
after His departure, and to us, what Jesus Christ had 
been to them’ during the days of His personal com- 
panionship with them (John xiv. 16, 17). Is He that 
toyou? Doyou know Him? Every week in your life 
you hear the apostolic benediction, “The grace of the 
Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the com- 
munion of the Holy Ghost be with you all” (2 Cor. 
xili. 14), but while you hear it, do you take in the signif- 
icance of it? Do you know the communion of the 
Holy Ghost? The fellowship of the Holy Ghost? 
The partnership of the Holy Ghost? The comrade- 
ship of the Holy Ghost? The intimate personal 
friendship of the Holy Ghost? Herein lies the whole 
Secret of a real Christian life, a life of liberty and joy 
and power and fullness. To have as one’s ever- 
present Friend, and to be conscious that one has as his 
ever-present Friend, the Holy Spirit and to surrender 
one’s life in all its departments entirely to His control, 
this is true Christian living. The doctrine of the 
Personality of the Holy Spirit is as distinctive of the 
religion that Jesus taught as the doctrines of the Deity 
and the atonement of Jesus Christ Himself. But it 
is not enough to believe the doctrine—one must know 
the Holy Spirit Himself. The whole purpose of this 
chapter (God help me to say it reverently) is to in- 
troduce you to my Friend, the Holy Spirit. 


| 
: 


II 


The Deity of the Holy Spirit 


N the preceding chapter we have seen clearly that 
| the Holy Spirit is a Person. But what sort of a 

Person is He? Is Hea finite person or an in- 
finite person? Is He God? This question also is 
plainly answered in the Bible. ‘There are in the Scrip- 
tures of the Old and New Testaments five distinct 
and decisive lines of proof of the Deity of the Holy 
Spirit. 


I. Each of the four distinctively Divine attributes is 
ascribed to the Holy Spirit. 

What are the distinctively Divine attributes? Eter- 
nity, omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence. 
All of these are ascribed to the Holy Spirit in the Bible. 

We find eternity ascribed to the Holy Spirit in Heb. 
1x. 14, “* How much more shall the blood of Christ, who 
through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot 
to God, purge your conscience from dead works to 
serve the living God?” 

Omnipresence is ascribed to the Holy Spirit in Ps. 
cxxxix. 7-10, “Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit ? 
or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend 
up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in 
hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of 
the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the 


2) 


26 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy 
right hand shall hold me.” 

Omniscience is ascribed to the Holy Spirit in several 
passages. For example, we read in I Cor. ii. 10, 11, 
“ But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit : 
for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things 
of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, 
save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the 
things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” 
Again in John xiv. 26, “ But the Comforter, which is 
the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My 
name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all 
things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said 
unto you.” Still further we read in John xvi. 12, T3) 
R. V., “I have yet many things to say unto you, but 
ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the 
Spirit of truth is come, He shall guide you into all the 
truth: for He shall not speak from Himself; but what 
things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak: and 
He shall declare unto you the things that are to come.” 

We find omnipotence ascribed to the Holy Spirit in 
Luke i. 35, “And the angel answered and said unto 
her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the 
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore 
also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall 
be called the Son of God.” 


I]. Three distinctively Divine works are ascribed to 
the Holy Spirit. 

When we think of God and His work, the first 
work of which we always think is that of creation, 


a ’ — = = 


The Deity of the Holy Spirit on 


In the Scriptures creation is ascribed to the Holy Spirit. 
We read in Job xxxiil. 4, “The Spirit of God hath 
made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me 
life.’ We read still again in Ps. civ. 30, “ Thou 
sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created: and Thou 
renewest the face of the earth.’’ In connection with 
the description of creation in the first chapter of Genesis, 
the activity of the Spirit is referred to (Gen. i. 1-3). 
The impartation of life is also a Divine work and 
this is ascribed in the Scriptures to the Holy Spirit. 
We read in John vi. 6, A. R. V., “It is the Spirit 
that giveth life: the flesh profiteth nothing.” We 
read also in Rom. vili. 11, “ But if the Spirit of Him 
that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He 
that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken 
your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in 
you.” In the description of the creation of man in 
Gen. ii. 7, it is the breath of God, that is the Holy 
Spirit, who imparts life to man, and man becomes a 
living soul. The exact words are, “And the Lord 
God formed man of the dust of the ground, and 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man 
became a living soul.” The Greek word which is 
rendered “spirit”? means ‘“ breath”? and though the 
Holy Spirit as a Person does not come out distinctly 
in this early reference to Him in Gen. ii. 7, nevertheless, 
this passage interpreted in the light of the fuller revelation 
of the New Testament clearly refers to the Holy Spirit. 
The authorship of Divine prophecies is also ascribed 
to the Holy Spirit. We read in 2 Pet. i. 21, R. V., 
“For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but 


28 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost.” 
Even in the Old Testament, there is a reference to the 
Holy Spirit as the author of prophecy. We read in 
2 Sam. xxiii. 2, 3, “ The Spirit of the Lorp spake by 
me, and His word was in my tongue. The God of 
Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that 
ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.” 

So we see that the three distinctly Divine works of 
creation, the -impartation of life, and prophecy are 
ascribed to the Holy Spirit. 


III. Statements which in the Old Testament distinctly 
name the Lorp or Fehovah as their subject are applied to 
the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, i.e., the Holy Spirit 
occupies the position of Deity in New Testament thought. 

A striking illustration of this is found in Isa. vj, 8-10, 
** Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom 
shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, 
Here am I; send me. And He said, Go, and tell this 
people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see 
ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this 
people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their 
eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their 
ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and 
be healed.” In verse five we are told that it was 
Jehovah (whenever the word Lorp is spelled in 
capitals in the Old Testament, it stands for Jehovah 
in the Hebrew and is so rendered in the American 
Revision) whom Isaiah saw and who speaks. But in 
Acts xxviii. 25-27 there is a reference to this statement 
of Isaiah’s and whereas in Isaiah we are told it is 


7 eee 


ee ee ee 


The Deity of the Holy Spirit 29 


Jehovah who speaks, in the reference in Acts we are 
told that it was the Holy Spirit who was the speaker. 
The passage in Acts reads as follows, “And when 
they agreed not among themselves, they departed after 
that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy 
Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, saying, 
Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, 
and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see and 
not perceive: For the heart of this people is waxed 
eross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes 
have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, 
and hear with their ears, and understand with their 
heart, and should be converted, and I should heal 
them.”’ So we see that what is distinctly ascribed to 
Jehovah in the Old Testament is ascribed to the Holy 
Spirit in the New: 7. ¢., the Holy Spirit is identified 
with Jehovah. It is a noteworthy fact that in the 
Gospel of John, the twelfth chapter and the thirty- 
ninth to forty-first verses where another reference is 
made to this passage in Isaiah, this same passage is as- 
cribed to Christ (note carefully the forty-first verse). 
So in different parts of Scripture, we have the same 
passage referred to Jehovah, referred to the Holy 
Spirit, and referred to Jesus Christ. May we not find 
the explanation of this in the threefold ‘* Holy ” of the 
- seraphic cry in Isaiah vi. 3, where we read, ‘“‘ And one 
cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the 
Lorp of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.” 
In this we have a distinct suggestion of the tri-per- 
sonality of the Jehovah of Hosts, and hence the pro- 
priety of the threefold application of the vision, A 


3° The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


further suggestion of this tri-personality of Jehovah of 
Hosts is found in the eighth verse of the chapter where 
the Lord is represented as saying, “Whom shall I 
send, and who will go for us?” 

Another striking illustration of the application of 
passages in the New Testament to the Holy Spirit 
which in the Old Testament distinctly name Jehovah 
as their subject is found in Ex. xvi. 7. Here we 
read, ‘“* And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory 
of the Lorn; for that He heareth your murmurings 
against the Lorp: and what are we that ye murmur 
against us?” Here the murmuring of the children of 
Israel is distinctly said to be against Jehovah. But in 
Heb. iii. 7-9, where this instance is referred to, we 
read, “Wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith, To-day if 
ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, and in 
the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilder- 
ness: When your fathers tempted Ze, proved Me, and 
saw My works forty years.” The murmurings which 
Moses in the Book of Exodus Says were against Jeho- 
vah, we are told in the Epistle to the Hebrews were 
against the Holy Spirit. This leaves it beyond question 
that the Holy Spirit occupies the position of Jehovah (or 
Deity) in the New Testament (cf. also Ps. xcv. 8-11). 


IV. The name of the Holy Spirit is coupled with that 
of God in a way it would be impossible for a reverent and 
thoughtful mind to couple the name of any finite being with 
that of the Deity. 

We have an illustration of this in 1 Cor. xii. 4-6, 
‘* Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit: 


The Deity of the Holy Spirit 31 


And there are differences of administrations, but the 
same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but 
it is the same God which worketh all in all.” Here we 
find God, and the Lord and the Spirit associated to- 
gether in a relation of equality that would be shocking 
to contemplate if the Spirit were a finite being. We 
have a still more striking illustration of this in Matt. 
xxviil. 19, ‘Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, 
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”? Who, that had grasped 
the Bible conception of God the Father, would think 
for a moment of coupling the name of the Holy Spirit 
with that of the Father in this way if the Holy Spirit 
were a finite being, even the most exalted of angelic 
beings? Another striking illustration is found in 
2 Cor. xiii. 14, “ The grace of the Lord esus Christ, 
and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy 
Ghost, be with you all. Amen.’’ Can any one ponder 
these words and catch anything like their real import 
without seeing clearly that it would be impossible to 
couple the name of the Holy Spirit with that of God 
the Father in the way in which it is coupled in this 
verse unless the Holy Spirit were Himself a Divine Be- 
ing ? 


V. The Holy Spirit is called God. 

The final and decisive proof of the Deity of the 
Holy Spirit is found in the fact that He is called God 
in the New Testament. We read in Acts v. 3, 4, 
“But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine 
heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part 


32 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it 
not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in 
thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this 
thing in thine heart?) Thou hast not lied unto men 
but unto God.’ In the first part of this passage we are 
told that Ananias lied to the Holy Spirit. When this 
is further explained, we are told it was not unto men 
but unto God that he had lied in lying to the Holy 
Spirit, 7. ¢. the Holy Spirit to whom he lied is called 
God. 

To sum it all up, by the ascription of all the dis- 
tinctively Divine attributes, and several distinctly 
Divine works, by referring statements which in the 
Old ‘Testament clearly name Jehovah, the Lord, or 
God as their subject to the Holy Spirit in the New 
Testament, by coupling the name of the Holy Spirit 
with that of God in a way that would be impossible to 
couple that of any finite being with that of Deity, by, 
plainly calling the Holy Spirit God, in all these unmis- 
takable ways, God in His own Word distinctly pro- 
claims that the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person. 


—— 


Gi ee 2S ee ns 


Ill 


The Distinction of the Holy Spirit from the 
Father and from His Son, Jesus Christ 


E have seen thus far that the Holy Spirit is 
\ N a Person and a Divine Person. And now 
another question arises, Is He as a Person 
separate and distinct from the Father and from the Son? 
One who carefully studies the New Testament state- 
ments cannot but discover that beyond a question He 
is. We read in Luke iii. 21, 22, “* Now when all the 
people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also 
being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, 
and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a 
dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven, which 
said, Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am well 
pleased.” Here the clearest possible distinction is 
drawn between Jesus Christ, who was on earth, and 
the Father who spoke to Him from heaven as one per- 
son speaks to another person, and the Holy Spirit who 
descended in a bodily form asa dove from the Father, 
who was speaking, to the Son, to whom He was 
speaking, and rested upon the Son as a Person separate 
and distinct from Himself. We see a clear distinction 
drawn between the name of the Father and that of the 
Son and that of the Holy Spirit in Matt. xxviii. 19, 
where we read, ‘“‘ Go ye therefore, and teach all na- 
33 


34 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


tions, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and 
of the Son, amd of the Holy Ghost.” ‘The distinction 
of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son comes 
out again with exceeding clearness in John xiv. 16. 
Here we read, “And J will pray the Father, and He 
shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide 
with you forever.”’» Here we see the one Person, the 
Son, praying to another Person, the Father, and the 
Father to whom He prays giving another Person, an- 
other Comforter, in answer to the prayer of the second 
Person, the Son. If words mean anything, and cer- 
tainly in the Bible they mean what they say, there can 
be no mistaking it, that the Father and the Son and the 
Spirit are three distinct and separate Persons. 

Again in John xvi. 7,a clear distinction is drawn 
between Jesus who goes away to the Father and the 
Holy Spirit who comes from the Father to take His 
place. Jesus says, “ Nevertheless I tell you the truth ; 
It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not 
away, the Comforter will not come unto you ; but if I 
depart, I will send Him unto you.” A similar distinc- 
tion is drawn in Acts ii. 33, where we read, ‘“ Therefore 
being by the right hand of God exalted, and having re- 
ceived of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, 
He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.” 
In this passage, the clearest possible distinction is 
drawn between the Son exalted to the right hand of the 
Father and the Father to whose right hand He is ex- 
alted, and the Holy Spirit whom the Son receives from 
the Father and sheds forth upon the Church. 

To sum it all up, again and again the Bible draws 


The Distinction of the Holy Spirit 35 


the clearest possible distinction between the three Per- 
sons, the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son. They 
are three separate personalities, having mutual relations 
to one another, acting upon one another, speaking of 
or to one another, applying the pronouns of the second 
and third versons to one another. 


IV 


The Subordination of the Spirit to the Father 
and to the Son 


ROM the fact that the Holy Spirit is a Divine 
H Person, it does not follow that the Holy Spirit 

is in every sense equal to the Father. While 
the Scriptures teach that in Jesus Christ dwelt all the 
fullness of the Godhead in a bodily form (Col. ii. 9) 
and that He was so truly and fully Divine that He 
could say, “I and the Father are one ” (John x. 30) 
and ‘He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father ” 
(John xiv. 9), they also teach with equal clearness that _ 
Jesus Christ was not equal to the Father in every re- 
spect, but subordinate to the Father in many ways. 
In a similar way, the Scriptures teach us that though 
the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person, He is subordinate 
to the Father and to the Son. In John xiv. 26, we are 
taught that the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father and in 
the name of the Son. Jesus declares very clearly, “ But 
the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the 
Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all 
things, and bring all things to your remembrance, 
whatsoever I have said unto you.” In John xv. 26 
we are told that it is Jesus who sends the Spirit from 
the Father. The exact words are, “But when the 


Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from 
36 


The Subordination of the Spirit 37 


the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth 
from the Father, He shall testify of Me.” Just as we 
are elsewhere taught that Jesus Christ was sent by the 
Father (John vi. 29; vill. 29, 42), we are here taught 
that the Holy Spirit in turn is sent by Jesus Christ. 

The subordination of the Holy Spirit to the Father 
and the Son comes out also in the fact that He derives 
some of His names from the Father and from the Son. 
We read in Rom. viii. 9, ‘* But ye are not in the 
flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God 
dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of 
Christ, he is none of His.’”? Here we have two names 
of the Spirit, one derived from His relation to the 
Father, “the Spirit of God,’ and the other derived 
from His relation to the Son, “the Spirit of Christ.” 

In Acts xvi. 7, R. V., He is spoken of as “ the Spirit 
of Jesus.” 

The subordination of the Spirit to the Son is also 
seen in the fact that the Holy Spirit speaks “ not from 
Himself but speaks the words which He hears.”” We 
read in John xvi. 13, R. V., “ Howbeit when He, the 
Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the 
truth: for He shall not speak from Himself; but what 
things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak : and 
He shall declare unto you the things that are to come.” 
In a similar way, Jesus said of Himself, “* My teaching 
is not Mine, but His that sent Me” (John vii. 16; 
vill. 26, 40). 

The subordination of the Spirit to the Son comes 
out again in the clearly revealed fact that it is the work 


of the Holy Spirit not to glorify Himself but to glorify 


38 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


Christ. Jesus says in John xvi. 14, “ He shall glorify 
Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it 
unto you.” In a similar way, Christ sought not His 
own glory, but the glory of Him that sent Him, that is 
the Father (John vii. 18). 

From all these passages, it is evident that the Holy 
Spirit in His present work, while possessed of all the 
attributes of Deity, is subordinated to the Father and 
to the Son. On the other hand, we shall see later that 
in His earthly life, Jesus lived and taught and worked 
in the power of the Holy Spirit. 


Vv 


The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit as 
Revealed in His Names 


T least twenty-five different names are used in 
A the Old and New Testaments in speaking of 
the Holy Spirit. There is the deepest signif- 

icance in these names. ‘By the careful study of them, 


we find a wonderful revelation of the Person and work 
of the Holy Spirit. 


I. The Spirit. 

The simplest name by which the Holy Spirit is 
mentioned in the Bible is that which stands at the head 
of this paragraph—t The Spirit.’ ‘This name is also 
used as the basis of other names, so we begin our study 
with this. The Greek and Hebrew words so translated 
mean literally, “ Breath” or “ Wind.” Both thoughts 
are in the name as applied to the Holy Spirit. 

1. The thought of breath is brought out in John 
xx. 22 where we read, ‘¢ And when He had said this, He 
breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the 
Holy Ghost.’’ It is also suggested in Gen. il. 7, 
“ And the Lorp God formed man of the dust of the 
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; 
and man became a living soul.’’ ‘This becomes more 
evident when we compare with this Ps. civ. 30, 
“ Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created: and 

39 


40 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


Thou renewest the face of the earth.” And Job xxxiii. 
4, “* The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath 
of the Almighty hath given me life.’ What is the 
significance of this name from the standpoint of these 
passages It is that the Spirit is the outbreathing of 
God, His inmost life going forth in a personal form to 
quicken. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive 
the inmost life of God Himself to dwell in a personal 
way in us. When we really grasp this thought, it is 
overwhelming in its solemnity. Just stop and think 
what it means to have the inmost life of that infinite 
and eternal Being whom we call God, dwelling in a 
personal way in you. How solemn and how awful and 
yet unspeakably glorious life becomes when we realize 
this. 

2. ‘The thought of the Holy Spirit as “the Wind” 
is brought out in John iii. 6—8, “ That which is born 
of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit 
is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be 
born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and 
thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every 
one that is born of the Spirit.”’ In the Greek, it is the 
same word that is translated in one part of this passage 
“Spirit”? and the other part of the passage ‘ wind.” 
And it would seem as if the word ought to be translated 
the same way in both parts of the passage. It would 
then read, “‘ That which is born of the flesh is flesh 
and that which is born of the‘ Wind’ is wind. Marvel 
not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 
The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the 


The Holy Spirit as Revealed in His Names 41 


sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or 
whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the 
‘Wind.’” The full significance of this name as applied 
to the Holy Spirit (or Holy Wind) it may be beyond 
us to fathom, but we can see at least this much of its 
meaning : 

(1) The Spirit like the wind is sovereign. ‘The 
wind bloweth where it listeth”’ (John iii. 8). You 
cannot dictate to the wind. It does as it wills. Just 
so with the Holy Spirit—He is sovereign—we cannot 
dictate to Him. He “divides to each man”’ severally 
even as He will’? (1 Cor. xii. 11, R. V.).. © When the 
wind is blowing from the north you may long to have 
it blow from the south, but cry as clamorously as you 
may to the wind, ‘‘ Blow from the south”? it will keep 
right on blowing from the north. But while you 
cannot dictate to the wind, while it blows as it will, 
you may learn the laws that govern the wind’s motions 
and by bringing yourself into harmony with those laws, 
you can get the wind to do your work. ‘You can erect 
your windmill so that whichever way the wind blows 
from the wheels will turn and the wind will grind your 
grain, or pump your water. Just so, while we cannot 
dictate to the Holy Spirit we can learn the laws of His 
operations and by bringing ourselves into harmony with 
those laws, above all by submitting our wills absolutely 
to His sovereign will, the sovereign Spirit of God will 
work through us and accomplish His own glorious 
work by our instrumentatity. 

(2) The Spirit like the wind is invisible but none 
the less perceptible and real and mighty. You hear the 


42 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


sound of the wind (John iii. 8) but the wind itself you 
never see. You hear the voice of the Spirit but He 
Himself is ever invisible. (The word translated 
“sound” in John iii. 8 is the word which elsewhere is 
translated “‘ voice.” See R. V.) We not only hear the 
voice of the wind but we see its mighty effects. We 
feel the breath of the wind upon our cheeks, we see the 
dust and the leaves blowing before the wind, we see the 
vessels at sea driven swiftly towards their ports ; but 
the wind itself remains invisible. Just so with the 
Spirit ; we feel His breath upon our souls, we see the 
mighty things He does, but Himself we do not see. 
He is invisible, but He is real and perceptible. I shall 
never forget a solemn hour in Chicago Avenue Church, 
Chicago. Dr. W. W. White was making a farewell 
address before going to India to work among the 
students there. Suddenly, without any apparent warn- 
ing, the place was filled with an awful and glorious 
Presence. ‘To me it was very real, but the question 
arose in my mind, “Is this merely subjective, just a 
feeling of my own, or is there an objective Presence 
here ?”? After the meeting was over, I asked different 
persons whether they were conscious of anything and 
found that at the same point in the meeting they, too, 
though they saw no one, became distinctly conscious 
of an overwhelming Presence, the Presence of the 
Holy Spirit. Though many years have passed, there 
are those who speak of that hour to this day. On 
another occasion in my own home at Chicago, when 
kneeling in prayer with an intimate friend, as we prayed 
it seemed as if an unseen and awful Presence entered 


The Holy Spirit as Revealed in His Names 43 


the room. I realized what Eliphaz meant when he 
said, “¢ Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of 
my flesh stood up” (Job iv. 15). “he moment was 
overwhelming, but as glorious as it was awful. ‘These 
are but two illustrations of which many might be given. 
None of us have seen the Holy Spirit at any time, but 
of His presence we have been distinctly conscious again 
and again and again. His mighty power we have wit- 
nessed and His reality we cannot doubt. ‘There are 
those who tell us that they do not believe in anything 
which they cannot see. Not one of them has ever seen 
the wind but they all believe in the wind. ‘They have 
felt the wind and they have seen its effects, and just 
so we, beyond a question, have felt the mighty pres- 
ence of the Spirit and witnessed His mighty workings. 

(3) The Spirit like the wind is inscrutable. ‘¢ Thou 
vanst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth.” 
Nothing in nature is more mysterious than the wind. 
But more mysterious still is the Holy Spirit in His 
operations. We hear of how suddenly and unexpect- 
edly in widely separated communities He begins to 
work His mighty work. Doubtless there are hidden 
reasons why He does thus begin His work, but often- 
times these reasons are completely undiscoverable by us. 
We know not whence He comes nor whither He goes. 
We cannot tell where next He will display His mighty 
and gracious power. 

(4) The Spirit, like the wind, is imdtspensable. 
Without wind, that is “‘air in motion,’ there is no 
life and so Jesus says, ‘ Verily, verily, I say unto you, 
except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he 


44 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” If the wind 
should absolutely cease to blow for a single hour, most 
of the life on this earth would cease to be. Time 
and again when the health reports of the different 
cities of the United States are issued, it has been found 
that the five healthiest cities in the United States were 
five cities located on the great lakes. Many have been 
surprised at this report when they have visited some of 
these cities and found that they were far from being 
the cleanest cities, or most Sanitary in their general 
arrangement, and yet year after year this report has 
been returned. The explanation is simply this, it is 
the wind blowing from the lakes that has brought life 
and health to the cities. Just so when the Spirit ceases 
to blow in any heart or any church or any community, 
death ensues, but when the Spirit blows steadily upon 
the individual or the church or the community, there 
is abounding spiritual life and health. 

(5) Closely related to the foregoing thought, like 
the wind the Holy Spirit is life giving. This thought 
comes out again and again in the Scriptures. For 
example, we read in John vi. 63, A. R. V., “ It is the 
Spirit that giveth life,’ and in 2 Cor. iii. 6, we read, 
“The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.” Per- 
haps the most suggestive passage on this point is Ezek. 
xxxvil. 8, 9, 10, “And when I beheld, lo, the sinews 
and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered 
them above: but there was no breath in them, Then 
said He unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, 
son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord 
Gop; Come from the four winds, O breath, and 


The Holy Spirit as Revealed in His Names 45 


breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I 
prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came 
into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an 
exceeding great army” (cf. John iii. 5). Israel, in the 
prophet’s vision, was only bones, very many and very 
dry (vs. 2, 11), until the prophet proclaimed unto them 
the word of God; then there was a noise and a shak- 
ing and the bones came together, bone to his bone, 
and the sinews and the flesh came upon the bones, but 
still there was no life, but when the wind blew, the 
breath of God’s ,Spirit, then “they stood up upon 
their feet an exceeding great army.’ All life in the 
individual believer, in the teacher, the preacher, and 
the church is the Holy Spirit’s work. You will some- 
times make the acquaintance of a man, and as you 
hear him talk and observe his conduct, you are repelled 
and disgusted. Everything about him declares that 
he is a dead man, a moral corpse and not only dead 
but rapidly putrefying. You get away from him as 
quickly as you can. Months afterwards you meet him 
again. You hesitate to speak to him; you want to 
get out of his very presence, but you do speak to him, 
and he has not uttered many sentences before you 
notice a marvellous change. His conversation is sweet 
and wholesome and uplifting; everything about his 
manner is attractive and delightful. You soon dis- 
cover that the man’s whole conduct and life has been 
transformed. He is no longer a putrefying corpse but 
a living child of God. What has happened? The 
Wind of God has blown upon him; he has received 
the Holy Spirit, the Holy Wind. Some quiet Sabbath 


46 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


day you visit a church. Everything about the outward 
appointments of the church are all that could be de- 
sired. ‘There is an attractive meeting-house, an expen- 
Sive organ, a gifted choir, a scholarly preacher. The 
service is well arranged but you have not been long at 
the gathering before you are forced to see that there 
is no life, that it is all form, and that there is nothing 
really being accomplished for God or for man. You 
go away with a heavy heart. Months afterwards you 
have occasion to visit the church again; the outward 
appointments of the church are much as they were 
before but the service has not proceeded far before you 
note a great difference. There is a new power in the 
singing, a new spirit in the prayer, a new grip in the 
preaching, everything about the church is teeming with 
the life of God. What has happened? The Wind 
of God has blown upon that church; the Holy Spirit, 
the Holy Wind, has come. You go some day to hear 
a preacher of whose abilities you have heard great 
reports. As he stands up to preach you soon learn 
that nothing too much has been said in praise of his 
abilities from the merely intellectual and rhetorical 
standpoint. His diction is faultless, his style beautiful, 
his logic unimpeachable, his orthodoxy beyond criti- 
cism. It is an intellectual treat to listen to him, and 
yet after all as he preaches you cannot avoid a feeling 
of sadness, for there is no real grip, no real power, 
indeed no reality of any kind, in the man’s preaching. 
You go away with a heavy heart at the thought of this 
waste of magnificent abilities. Months, perhaps years, 
pass by and you again find yourself listening to this 


The Holy Spirit as Revealed in His Names 47 


celebrated preacher, but what a change! ‘The same 
faultless diction, the same beautiful style, the same 
unimpeachable logic, the same skillful elocution, the 
same sound orthodoxy, but now there is something 
more, there is reality, life, grip, power in the preach- 
ing. Men and women sit breathless as he speaks, 
sinners bowed with tears of contrition, pricked to 
their hearts with conviction of sin; men and women 
and boys and girls renounce their selfishness, and 
their sin and their worldliness and accept Jesus 
Christ and surrender their lives to Him. What has 
happened? The Wind of God has blown upon 
that man. He has been filled with the Holy Wind. 

(6) Like the wind, the Holy Spirit is crreszstible. 
We read in Acts i. 8, “ But ye shall recetve power, after 
that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall 
be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all 
Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of 
the earth.” When this promise of our Lord was ful- 
filled in Stephen, we read, ‘“‘ And they were not able to 
resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spake.” 
A man filled with the Holy Spirit is transformed into a 
cyclone. What can stand before the wind? When 
St. Cloud, Minn., was visited with a cyclone years ago, 
the wind picked up loaded freight cars and carried them 
away off the track. It wrenched an iron bridge from 
its foundations, twisted it together and hurled it away. 
When a cyclone later visited St. Louis, Mo., it cut off 
telegraph poles a foot in diameter as if they had been 
pipe stems. It cut off enormous trees close to the root, 
it cut off the corner of brick buildings where it passed 


48 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


as though they had been cut by a knife; nothing could 
stand before it; and so, nothing can stand before a 
Spirit-filled preacher of the Word. None can resist 
the wisdom and the Spirit by which he speaks. The 
Wind of God took possession of Charles G, Finney, 
an obscure country lawyer, and sent him through New 
York State, then through New England, then through 
England, mowing down strong men by his resistless, 
Spirit-given logic. One night in Rochester, scores of 
lawyers, led by the justice of the Court of Appeals, 
filed out of the pews and bowed in the aisles and 
yielded their lives to God. The Wind of God took 
possession of D. L. Moody, an uneducated young busi- 
ness man in Chicago, and in the power of this resist- 
less Wind, men and women and young people were 
mowed down before his words and brought in humble 
confession and renunciation of sin to the feet of Jesus 
Christ, and filled with the life of God they have been 
the pillars in the churches of Great Britain and through- 
out the world ever since. The great need to-day in 
individuals, in churches and in preachers is that the 
Wind of God blow upon us. 

Much of the difficulty that many find with John iii. 5, 
““ Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Ex- 
cept a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can- 
not enter into the kingdom of God,” would disappear 
if we would only bear in mind that “ Spirit ? means 
““Wind” and translate the verse literally all through, 
‘Except a man be born of water and Wind (there is no 
“the” in the original), he cannot enter the kingdom 
of God.” The thought would then seem to be, * Ex- 


The Holy Spirit as Revealed in His Names 49 


cepta man be born of the cleansing and quickening 
power of the Spirit (or else of the cleansing Word 
ooef.) John xv. 3's’ Eph. v..203 fas. 1/18); 7 Pets i; 23 
——and the quickening power of the Holy Spirit),”’ 


II. The Spirit of God. 

The Holy Spirit is frequently spoken of in the Bible 
as the Spirit of God. For example we read in 1 Cor. 
lil, 16, “* Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, 
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.”’ In this 
name we have the same essential thought as in the 
former name, but with this addition, that His Divine 
origin, nature and power are emphasized. He is not 
merely ‘“‘ The Wind” as seen above, but “ The Wind 
of God.” 


III. The Spirit of Fehovah. 

This name is used of the Holy Spirit in Isa. xi. 2, 
A. R. V., “And the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon 
him.” The thought of the name is, of course, essen- 
tially the same as the preceding with the exception that 
God is here thought of as the Covenant God of Israel. 
He is thus spoken of in the connection in which the 
name is found ; and, of course, the Bible, following that 
unerring accuracy that it always exhibits in its use of 
the different names for God, in this connection speaks 
of the Spirit as the Spirit of Jehovah and not merely as 
the Spirit of God. 


IV. The Spirit of the Lord Fehouah. 
The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of the Lord 
Jehovah in Isa. lxi. 1-3, A. R. V., “ The Spirit of the 


50 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


Lord Jehovah is upon Me; because Jehovah hath 
anointed Me to preach good tidings to the meek; He 
hath sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to pro- 
claim liberty to the captives, etc.” The Holy Spirit is 
here spoken of, not merely as the Spirit of Jehovah, 
but the Spirit of the Lord Jehovah because of the re- 
lation in which God Himself is spoken of in this con- 
nection, as not merely Jehovah, the covenant God of 
Israel, but as Jehovah Israel’s Lord as well as their 
covenant-keeping God. This name of the Spirit is 
even more expressive than the name “ The Spirit of 


God.” 


V. The Spirit of the Living God. 

The Holy Spirit is called “ The Spirit of the living 
God” in 2 Cor. iii. 3, “ Forasmuch as ye are mani- 
festly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by 
us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the liv- 
ing God ; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of 
the heart.”” What is the significance of this name? 
It is made clear by the context. The Apostle Paul is 
drawing a contrast between the Word of God written 
with ink on parchment and the Word of God written 
on “tables that are hearts of flesh” (R. V.) by the 
Holy Spirit, who in this connection is called ‘ the Spirit 
of the living God,” because He makes God a living 
reality in our personal experience instead of a mere in- 
tellectual concept. There are many who believe in 
God, and who are perfectly orthodox in their concep- 
tion of God, but after all God is to them only an in- 
tellectual theological proposition. It is the work of the 


The Holy Spirit as Revealed in His Names 51 


Holy Spirit to make God something vastly more than a 
theological notion, no matter how orthodox; He is the 
Spirit of the living God, and it is His work to make God 
a living God to us, a Being whom we know, with 
whom we have personal acquaintance, a Being more 
real to us than the most intimate human friend we 
have. Have you a real God? Well, you may have. 
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the living God, and He 
is able and ready to give to you a living God, to make 
God real in your personal experience. There are many 
who have a God who once lived and acted and spoke, 
a God who lived and acted at the creation of the uni- 
verse, who perhaps lived and acted in the days of Moses 
and Elijah and Jesus Christ and the Apostles, but who 
no longer lives and acts. If He exists at all, He has 
withdrawn Himself from any active part in nature or 
the history of man. He created nature and gave it its 
laws and powers and now leaves it to run itself. He 
created man and endowed him with his various faculties 
but has now left him to work out his own destiny. 
They may go further than this: they may believe in a 
God, who spoke to Abraham and to Moses and to 
David and to Isaiah and to Jesus and to the Apostles, 
but who speaks no longer. We may read in the Bible 
what He spoke to these various men but we cannot 
expect Him to speak to us. In contrast with these, it 
is the work of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of rhe living 
God, to give us to know a God who lives and acts and 
speaks to-day, a God who is ready to come as near to 
us as He came to Abraham, to Moses or to Isaiah, or 
to the Apostles or to Jesus Himself. Not that He has 


52 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


any new revelations to make, for He guided the 
Apostles into all the truth (John xvi. 13, R. V.): but 
though there has been a complete revelation of God’s 
truth made in the Bible, still God lives to-day and will 
speak to us as directly as He spoke to His chosen ones 
of old. Happy is the man who knows the Holy Spirit 
as the Spirit of the living God, and who, consequently, 
has a real God, a God who lives to-day, a God upon 
whom he can depend to-day to undertake for him, a 
God with whom he enjoys intimate personal fellow- 
ship, a God to whom he may raise his voice in prayer 
and who speaks back to him. 


VI. The Spirit of Christ. 

In Rom. viii. 9, “* But ye are not in the flesh, but in 
the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. 
Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he ts 
none of His.’? ‘The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of 
Christ. The Spirit of Christ in this passage does not 
mean a Christlike spirit. It means something far more 
than that, it means that which lies back of a Christlike 
spirit; it is a name of the Holy Spirit. Why is the 
Holy Spirit called the Spirit of Christ? For several 
reasons : 

(1) Because He is Christ’s gift. ‘The Holy Spirit 
is not merely the gift of the Father, but the gift of the 
Son as well. We read in John xx. 22 that Jesus 
‘breathed on them and saith unto them, Receive ye 
the Holy Ghost.” The Holy Spirit is therefore the 
breath of Christ, as well as the breath of God the 
Father. It is Christ who breathes upon us and im- 


The Holy Spirit as Revealed in His Names 53 


parts to us the Holy Spirit. In John xiv. 15 and the 
following verses Jesus teaches us that it is in answer to 
His prayer that the Father gives to us the Holy Spirit. 
In Acts ii. 33 we read that Jesus ‘‘ Being by the right 
hand of God exalted and having received of the Father 
the promise of the Holy Spirit,” shed Him forth upon 
believers; that is, that Jesus, having been exalted to 
the right hand of God, in answer to His prayer, re- 
ceives the Holy Spirit from the Father and sheds forth 
upon the Church Him whom He hath received from 
the Father. In Matt. iii. 11 we read that it is Jesus 
who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. In John vii. 37-39 
Jesus bids all that are thirsty to come unto Him and 
drink, and the context makes it clear that the water 
that He gives is the Holy Spirit, who becomes in those 
who receive Him a source of life and power flowing 
out to others. It is the glorified Christ who gives to 
the Church the Holy Spirit. In the fourth chapter of 
John and the tenth verse Jesus declares that He is the 
~ One who gives the living water, the Holy Spirit. In 
all these passages, Christ is set forth as the One who 
gives the Holy Spirit, so the Holy Spirit is called “ the 
Spirit of Christ.” 

(2) But there is a deeper reason why the Holy 
Spirit is called “ the Spirit of Christ,” 7. ¢., because it is 
the work of the Holy Spirit to reveal Christ to us. In 
John xvi. 14, R. V., we read, “ He (that is the Holy 
Spirit) shall glorify Me: for He shall take of Mine, and 
shall declare it unto you.” In a similar way in John 

xv. 26, R. V., it is written, “ But when the Comforter 
is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, 


54 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the 
Father, He shall bear witness of Me.” This is the 
work of the Holy Spirit to bear witness of Christ and 
reveal Jesus Christ to men. And as the revealer of 
Christ, He is called ‘the Spirit of Christ.” 

(3) But there is a still deeper reason yet why the 
Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Christ, and that is 
because it is His work to form Christ as a living presence 
within us. In Eph. ili. 16, 17, the Apostle Paul prays 
to the Father that He would grant to believers accord- 
ing to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with 
might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may 
dwell in their hearts by faith. This then is the work 
of the Holy Spirit, to cause Christ to dwell in our 
hearts, to form the living Christ within us. Just as the 
Holy Spirit literally and physically formed Jesus Christ 
in the womb of the Virgin Mary (Luke i. 35) so the 
Holy Spirit spiritually but really forms Jesus Christ 
within our hearts to-day. In John xiv. 16-18, Jesus 
told His disciples that when the Holy Spirit came that 
He Himself would come, that is, the result of the com- 
ing of the Holy Spirit to dwell in their hearts would be 
the coming of Christ Himself. It is the privilege of 
every believer in Christ to have the living Christ 
formed by the power of the Holy Spirit in his own 
heart and therefore the Holy Spirit who thus forms 
Christ within the heart is called the Spirit of Christ. 
How wonderful! How glorious is the significance of 
this name. Let us ponder it until we understand it, as 
far as it is possible to understand it, and until we rejoice 
exceedingly in the glory of it. 


The Holy Spirit as Revealed in His Names 55 


VII. The Spirit of Fesus Christ. 

The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Fesus Christ 
in Phil. i. 19, “For I know that this shall turn to my 
salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the 
Spirit of esus Christ.” The Spirit is not merely the 
Spirit of the eternal Word but the Spirit of the Word 
incarnate. Not merely the Spirit of Christ, but the 
Spirit of Fesus Christ. It is the Man Jesus exalted to 
the right hand of the Father who receives and sends 
the Spirit. So we read in Acts il. 32, 33,“ This Fesus 
hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. 
Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and 
having received of the Father the promise of the Holy 
Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and 


hear.’ 


VIII. The Spirit of Jesus. 

The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Fesus in Acts 
xvi. 6, 7, R. V., “¢ And they went through the region of 
Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden of the 
Holy Ghost to speak the word in Asia; and when they 
were come over against Mysia, they assayed to go into 
Bithynia; and the Spzrit of Fesus suffered them not.” 
By the using of this name, “ The Spirit of ‘Fesus”’ the 
thought of the relation of the Spirit to the Man ‘fesus 
is still more clear than in the name preceding this, the 
Spirit of Jesus Christ. 


IX. The Spirit of His Son. 

The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of His Son in 
Gal. iv. 6, “‘ And because ye are sons, God hath sent 
forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, 


56 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


Abba, Father.” We see from the context (vs. 4, 5) 
that this name is given to the Holy Spirit in special 
connection with His testifying to the sonship of the 
believer. It is “*zhe Spirit of His Son”’ who testifies to 
our sonship. “Phe thought is that the Holy Spirit is a 
filial Spirit, a Spirit who produces a sense of sonship in 
us. If we receive the-Holy Spirit, weno longer think 
of God as if we were serving under constraint and 
bondage but we are sons living in joyous liberty. We 
do not fear God, we trust Him and rejoice in Him. 
When we receive the Holy Spirit, we do not receive a 
Spirit of bondage again to fear but a Spirit of adoption 
whereby we cry, Abba, Father (Rom. viii. 15). This 
name of the Holy Spirit is one of the most suggestive 
of all. We do well to ponder it long until we realize 
the glad fullness of its significance. We shall take it 
up again when we come to study the work of the Holy 
Spirit. 


X. The Holy Spirit. 

This name is of very frequent occurrence, and the 
name with which most of us are most familiar. One 
of the most familiar passages in which the name is used 
is Luke xi. 13, “If ye then, being evil, know how to 
give good gifts unto your children: how much more 
shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them 
that ask Him?” This name emphasizes the essential 
moral character of the Spirit. He is holy in Himself. 
We are so familiar with the name that we neglect to 
weigh its significance. Oh, if we only realized more 


deeply and constantly that He is the Haly Spirit. We 


The Holy Spirit as Revealed in His Names 57 


would do well if we, as the seraphim in Isaiah’s vision, 
would bow in His presence and cry, “ Holy, holy, 
holy.” Yet how thoughtlessly oftentimes we talk 
about Him and pray for Him. We pray for Him to 
come into our churches and into our hearts but what 
would He find if He should come there? Would He 
not find much that would be painful and agonizing to 
Him? What would we think if vile women from the 
lowest den of iniquity in a great city should go to the 
purest woman in the city and invite her to come and 
live with them in their disgusting vileness with no in- 
tention of changing their evil ways. But that would 
not be as shocking as for you and me to ask the Holy 
Spirit to come and dwell in our hearts when we have 
no thought of giving up our impurity, or our selfish- 
ness, or our worldliness, or our sin. It would not be 
as shocking as it is for us to invite the Holy Spirit 
to come into our churches when they are full of 
worldliness and selfishness and contention and envy 
and pride, and all that is unholy. But if the denizens 
of the lowest and vilest den of infamy should go to the 
purest and most Christlike woman asking her to go 
and dwell with them with the intention of putting 
away everything that was vile and evil and giving to 
this holy and Christlike woman the entire control of 
the place, she would go. And as sinful and selfish and 
imperfect as we may be, the infinitely Holy Spirit is 
ready to come and take His dwelling in our heart if we 
will surrender to Him the absolute control of our lives, 
and allow Him to bring everything in thought and 
fancy and feeling and purpose and imagination and ac- 


58 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


tion into conformity with His will. The infinitely 
Holy Spirit is ready to come into our churches, how- 
ever imperfect and worldly they may be now, if we 
are willing to put the absolute control of everything in 
His hands. But let us never forget that He is the 
Holy Spirit, and when we pray for Him let us pray for 
Him as such. 


XI. The Holy Spirit of Promise. 

The Holy Spirit is called the Holy Spirit of promise 
in Eph. i. 13, R. V., “¢ In whom ye also, having heard 
the Word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation,—in 
whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the 
Holy Spirit of promise.” We have here the same name 
as that given above with the ‘added thought that this 
Holy Spirit is the great promise of the Father and of 
the Son. The Holy Spirit is God’s great all-inclusive 
promise for the present dispensation ; the one thing for 
which Jesus bade the disciples wait after His ascension 
before they undertook His work was “‘ the promise of 
the Father,”’ that is the Holy Spirit (Acts i. 4, 5). 
The great promise of the Father until the coming of 
Christ was the coming atoning Saviour and King, but 
when Jesus came and died His atoning death upon the 
cross of Calvary and arose and ascended to the right 
hand of the Father, then the second great promise of 
the Father was the Holy Spirit to take the place of our 
absent Lord. (See also Acts ii. 33.) 


XII. he Spirit of Holiness. 
The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of holiness in 
Rom. i. 4, “ And declared to be the Son of God with 


The Holy Spirit as Revealed in His Names 59 


power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrec- 
tion from the dead.” At the first glance it may seem 
as if there were no essential difference between the 
two names the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of holiness. 
But there is a marked difference. “The name of the 
Holy Spirit, as already said, emphasizes the essential 
moral character of the Spirit as holy, but the name of 
the Spirit of holiness brings out the thought that the 
Holy Spirit is not merely holy in Himself but He 
imparts holiness to others. ‘The perfect holiness which 
He Himself possesses He imparts to those who receive 
aim ch.’ Pet: 1.' 2): 


XIII. The Spirit of Fudgment. 

The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of judgment in 
Isa. iv. 4, “‘ When the Lord shall have washed away 
the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have 
purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof 
by the Spirit of judgment, and by the Spirit of burning.”’ 
There are two names of the Holy Spirit in this passage ; 
first, the Spirit of judgment. The Holy Spirit is so 
called because it is His work to bring sin to light, to 
convict of sin (cf. John xvi. 7-9). When the Holy 
Spirit comes to us the first thing that He does is to 
open our eyes to see our sins as God sees them. He 
judges our sin. (We will go into this more at length in 
studying John xvi. 7-11 when considering the work of 
the Holy Spirit.) 


XIV. The Spirit of Burning. 
This name is used in the passage just quoted above. 


(See XIII.) This name emphasizes His searching, 


60 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


refining, dross-consuming, illuminating and energizing 
work, ‘The Holy Spirit is like a fire in the heart in 
which He dwells; and as fire tests and refines and 
consumes and illuminates and warms and energizes, so 
does He. In the context, it is the cleansing work of the 
Holy Spirit which is especially emphasized (Isa. iv. 3, 4). 


XV. The Spirit of Truth. 

The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth in 
John xiv. 17, “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the 
world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither 
knoweth Him; but ye know Him; for He dwelleth 
with you, and shall be in you” (cf. John xv. 263 xvi. 
13). The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of truth 
because it is the work of the Holy Spirit to communi- 
cate truth, to impart truth, to those who receive Him. 
This comes out in the passage given above, and, if 
possible, it comes out even more clearly in John xvi. 
13, R. V., “ Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is 
come, He shall guide you into all the truth: for He 
shall not speak from Himself; but what things soever 
He shall hear, these shall He speak: and He shall 
declare unto you the things that are to come.” All 
truth is from the Holy Spirit. It is only as He teaches 
us that we come to know the truth. 


XVI. The Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding. 

The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of wisdom and 
understanding in Isa. xi. 2, And the Spirit of the 
Lorp shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and 
understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the 


The Holy Spirit as Revealed in His Names 61 


Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lorn.” 
The significance of the name is so plain as to need no 
explanation. It is evident both from the words used 
and from the context that it is the work of the Holy 
Spirit to impart wisdom and understanding to those 
who receive Him. Those who receive the Holy Spirit 
receive the Spirit “of power’ and “of love’ and “of 
a sound mind”? or sound sense (2 Tim. i. 7). 


XVII. The Spirit of Counsel and Might. 

We find this name used of the Holy Spirit in the 
passage given under the preceding head. ‘The mean- 
ing of this name too is obvious, the Holy Spirit is 
called “the Spirit of counsel and of might” because 
He gives us counsel in all our plans and strength to 
carry them out (cf. Acts viii. 29; xvi. 6, 75 i. 8). It 
is our privilege to have God’s own counsel in all our 
plans and God’s strength in all the work that we 
undertake for Him. We receive them by receiving 
the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of counsel and might. 


XVIII. The Spirit of Knowledge and of the Fear of 
the Lord. 

This name also is used in the passage given above 
(Isa. xi. 2). The significance of this name is also 
obvious. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to impart 
knowledge to us and to beget in us a reverence for 
Jehovah, that reverence that reveals itself above all in 
obedience to His commandments. The one who 
receives the Holy Spirit finds his delight in the fear of 
the Lorp. (See Isa. xi. 3, R. V.) The three sug- 


62 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


gestive names just given refer especially to the gracious 
work of the Holy Spirit in the servant of the Lord, 
that is Jesus Christ (Isa. xi. 1-5). 


XIX. The Spirit of Life. 

The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of life in Rom. 
vill. 2, “ For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus 
hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” 
The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of life because it is 
His work to impart life (cf. John vi. 63, R. V.; Ezek. 
XXXVil. I-10), In the context in which the name is 
found in the passage given above, beginning back in 
the seventh chapter of Romans, seventh verse, Paul is 
drawing a contrast between the law of Moses outside a 
man, holy and just and good, it is true, but impotent, 
and the living Spirit of God in the heart, imparting 
spiritual and moral life to the believer and enabling 
him thus to meet the requirements of the law of God, 
so that what the law alone could not do, in that it was 
weak through the flesh, the Spirit of God imparting 
life to the believer and dwelling in the heart enables 
him to do, so that the righteousness of the law is ful- 
filled in those who walk not after the flesh but after 
the Spirit. (See Rom. viii. 2-4.) The Holy Spirit is 
therefore called “the Spirit of life,’ because He im- 
parts spiritual life and consequent victory over sin to 
those who receive Him. 


XX. The Oil of Gladness. 
The Holy Spirit is called the “oil of gladness ”’ in 
Heb. i. g, “ Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated 


The Holy Spirit as Revealed in His Names 63 


iniquity ; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed 
thee with the ai/ of gladness above thy fellows.” Some 
one may ask what reason have we for supposing that 


D | 


““the oil of gladness”’ in this passage is a name of the 
Holy Spirit. “Che answer is found in a comparison of 
Heb. i. 9, with Acts x. 38 and Luke iv. 18. In Acts 
x. 38 we read “Show God anointed Jesus of Nazareth 
with the Holy Ghost and with power,” and in Luke 
iv. 18, Jesus Himself is recorded as saying, ** The Spirit 
of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me 
to preach the Gospel to the poor,” etc. In both of 
these passages, we are told it was the Holy Spirit with 
which “fesus was anointed and as in the passage in He- 
brews we are told that 7¢ was with the ail of gladness that 
He was anointed ; so, of course, the only possible con- 
clusion is that the oil of gladness means the Holy 
Spirit. What a beautiful and suggestive name it is for 
Him whose fruit is, first, “love” then “ joy” (Gal. 
v. 22). The Holy Spirit becomes a source of bound- 
less joy to those who receive Him; He so fills and satis- 
fies the soul, that the soul who receives Him does not 
thirst forever (John iv. 14). No matter how great the 
afflictions with which the believer receives the Word, 
still he will have “‘ the joy of the Holy Ghost” (1 Thess. 
i. 6). On the Day of Pentecost, when the disciples 
were baptized with the Holy Spirit, they were so filled 
with ecstatic joy that others looking on them thought 
they were intoxicated. “They said, ‘These men are 
full of new wine.”’ And Paul draws a comparison be- 
tween abnormal intoxication that comes through excess 
of wine and the wholesome exhilaration from which 


64. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


there is no reaction that comes through being filled 
with the Spirit (Eph. v. 18-20). When God anoints 
one with the Holy Spirit, it is as if He broke a precious 
alabaster box of oil of gladness above their heads until 
it ran down to the hem of their garments and the whole 
person was suffused with joy unspeakable and full of 


glory. 


XXI. The Spirit of Grace. 

The Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of grace” in 
Heb. x. 29, “© Of how much sorer punishment, sup- 
pose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trod- 
den underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the 
blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, 
an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit 
of grace’’”’ ‘This name brings out the fact that it is 
the Holy Spirit’s work to administer and apply the 
grace of God: He Himself is gracious, it is true, but 
the name means far more than that, it means that He 
makes ours experimentally the manifold grace of God. 
It is only by the work of the Spirit of grace in our 
hearts that we are enabled to appropriate to ourselves 
that infinite fullness of grace that God has, from the 
beginning, bestowed upon us in Jesus Christ. It is 
ours from the beginning, as far as belonging to us is 
concerned, but it is only ours experimentally as we 
claim it by the power of the Spirit of grace. 


XXII. The Spirit of Grace and of Supplication. 
The Holy Spirit is called “ the Spirit of grace and of 
supplication’ in Zech. xii. 10, R. V., “ And I will 


The Holy Spirit as Revealed in His Names 65 


pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabit- 
ants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication ; 
and they shall look unto Me whom they have pierced : 
and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his 
only son, and shall be in bitterness for his first-born.” 
The phrase, ‘ the Spirit of grace and of supplication” 
in this passage is beyond a doubt a name of the Holy 
Spirit. The name “ the Spirit of grace’ we have al- 
ready had under the preceding head, but here there is a 
further thought of that operation of grace that leads us 
to pray intensely. The Holy Spirit is so called because 
it is He that teaches to pray because all true prayer is 
in the Spirit (Jude 20). We of ourselves know not 
how to pray as we ought, but it is the work of the 
Holy Spirit of intercession to make intercession for us 
with groanings which cannot be uttered and to lead us 
out in prayer according to the will of God (Rom. 
vill. 26, 27). The secret of all true and effective pray- 
ing is knowing the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of grace 
and of supplication.” 


XXIII. The Spirit of Glory. 

The Holy Spirit is called “the Spirit of glory” in 
1 Pet. iv. 14, “If ye be reproached for the name of 
Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God 
resteth upon you: on their part He is evil spoken of, 
but on your part He is glorified.” This name does 
not merely teach that the Holy Spirit is infinitely 
glorious Himself, but it rather teaches that He imparts 
the glory of God to us, just as the Spirit of truth im- 
parts truth to us, and as the Spirit of life imparts life 


66 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


to us, and as the Spirit of wisdom and understand- 
ing and of counsel and might and knowledge and of 
the fear of the Lorp imparts to us wisdom and under- 
standing and counsel and might and knowledge and 
the fear of the Lorn, and as the Spirit of grace applies 
and administers to us the manifold grace of God, so 
the Spirit of glory is the administrator to us of God’s 
glory. In the immediately preceding verse we read, 
‘“‘ But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s 
sufferings : that, when His glory shall be revealed, ye 
may be glad also with exceeding joy.” It is in this 
connection that He is called the Spirit of glory. We 
find a similar connection between the sufferings which 
we endure and the glory which the Holy Spirit imparts 
to us in Rom. vill. 16, 17, “ The Spirit Himself beareth 
witness with our spirit, that we are children of God: 
and if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint- 
heirs with Christ; 7f so be that we suffer with Him, 
that we may be also glorified with Him.’ The 
Holy Spirit is the administrator of glory as well as 
of grace, or rather of the grace that culminates in 


glory. 


XXIV. The Eternal Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit is called ‘the eternal Spirit ” in 
Heb. ix. 14,‘ How much more shall the blood of 
Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself 
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead 
works to serve the living God.” The eternity and the 
Deity and infinite majesty of the Holy Spirit are 
brought out by this name. 


The Holy Spirit as Revealed in His Names 67 


XXV. The Comforter. 

The Holy Spirit is called ‘the Comforter” over 
and over again in the Scriptures. For example in John 
xiv. 26, we read, “ But the Comforter which is the Holy 
Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He 
shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your - 
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” And 
in John xv. 26, “ But when the Comforter is come, 
whom I will send unto you from the Father, even 
the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, 
He shall testify of Me.’ (See also John xvi. 27.) 
The word translated “Comforter” in these passages 
means that, but it means much more beside. It is a 
word difficult of adequate translation into any one 
word in English. The translators of the Revised 
Version found difficulty in deciding with what word to 
render the Greek word so translated. They have 
suggested in the margin of the Revised Version “ ad- 
vocate ”’ “helper”? and a simple transference of the 
Greek word into English, “ Paraclete.” The word 
translated ‘‘ Comforter”? means literally, “one called 
to another’s side,” the idea being, one right at hand to 
take another’s part. It is the same word that is trans- 
lated “‘ advocate ” in 1 John ii. 1, * My little children, 
these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if 
any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, 
Jesus Christ the righteous.’ But “advocate,” as we 
now understand it, does not give the full force of the 
Greek word so rendered. Etymologically “ advocate ” 
means nearly the same thing. Advocate is Latin 
(“‘advocatus ””) and it means “one called to another to 


68 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


take his part,’ but in our modern usage, the word has 
acquired a restricted meaning. The Greek word trans- 
lated ‘“*‘ Comforter” (Parakleetos) means “ one called 
alongside,”’ that is one called to stand constantly by 
one’s side and who is ever ready to stand by us and 
take our part in everything in which his help is needed. 
It is a wonderfully tender and expressive name for the 
Holy One. Sometimes when we think of the Holy 
Spirit, He seems to be so far away, but when we think 
of the Parakleetos, or in plain English our ‘ Stand- 
byer”’ or our “ part-taker,” how near He is. Up to 
the time that Jesus made this promise to the disciples, 
He Himself had been their Parakleetos. When they 
were in any emergency or difficulty they turned to 
Him. On one occasion, for example, the disciples 
were in doubt as to how to pray and they turned to Jesus 
and said, ‘ Lord, teach us to pray.’ And the Lord 
taught them the wonderful prayer that has come down 
through the ages (Luke xi. 1-4). On another occa- 
sion, Peter was sinking in the waves of Galilee and 
he cried, “ Lord, save me,” and immediately Jesus 
stretched forth His hand and caught him and saved 
him (Matt. xiv. 30, 31). In every extremity they 
turned to Him. Just so now that Jesus is gone to the 
Father, we have another Person, just as Divine as He 
is, just as wise as He, just as strong as He, just as 
loving as He, just as tender as He, just as ready and 
just as able to help, who is always right by our side. 
Yes, better yet, who dwells in our heart, who will take 
hold and help if we only trust Him to do it. 

If the truth of the Holy Spirit as set forth in the 


The Holy Spirit as Revealed in His Names 69 


name ‘“‘ Parakleetos”? once gets into our heart and 
abides there, it will banish all loneliness forever; for 
how can we ever be lonely when this best of all Friends 
is ever with us? In the last eight years, I have been 
called upon to endure what would naturally be a very 
lonely life. Most of the time I am separated from 
wife and children by the calls of duty. For eighteen 
months consecutively, I was separated from almost all 
my family by many thousands of miles. The loneli- 
ness would have been unendurable were it not for the 
one all-sufficient Friend, who was always with me. I 
recall one night walking up and down the deck of a 
storm-tossed steamer in the South Seas. Most of my 
family were 18,000 miles away ; the remaining member 
of my family was not with me. The officers were 
busy on the bridge, and I was pacing the deck alone, 
and the thought came to me, “ Here you are all alone.” 
Then another thought came, ‘“‘I am not alone; by my 
side as I walk this deck in the loneliness and the 
storm walks the Holy Spirit”? and He was enough. 
I said something like this once at a Bible conference 
in St. Paul. A doctor came to me at the close of the 
meeting and gently said, “I want to thank you for 
that thought about the Holy Spirit always being with 
us. I am a doctor. Oftentimes I have to drive far 
out in the country in the night and storm to attend a 
case, and I| have often been so lonely, but I will never 
be lonely again. I will always know that by my side 
in my doctor’s carriage, the Holy Spirit goes with me.” 

If this thought of the Holy Spirit as the ever-present 
Paraclete once gets into your heart and abides there, it 


70 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


will banish all fear forever. How can we be afraid in 
the face of any peril, if this Divine One is by our side 
to counsel us and to take our part? ‘There may bea 
howling mob about us, or a lowering storm, it matters 
not. He stands between us and both mob and storm. 
One night I had promised to walk four miles to a 
friend’s house after an evening session of a conference. 
The path led along the side of a lake. As I started 
for my friend’s house, a thunder-storm was coming up. 
I had not counted on this but as I had promised, I felt 
IT ought to go. ‘The path led along the edge of the 
lake, oftentimes very near to the edge, sometimes the 
lake was near the path and sometimes many feet below. 
The night was so dark with the clouds one could not 
see ahead. Now and then there would be a blinding 
flash of lightning in which you could see where the path 
was washed away, and then it would be blacker than 
ever. You could hear the lake booming below. It 
seemed a dangerous place to walk but that very week, 
I had been speaking upon the Personality of the Holy 
Spirit and about the Holy Spirit as an ever-present 
Friend, and the thought came to me, ‘¢‘ What was it 
you were telling the people in the address about the 
Holy Spirit as an ever-present Friend?” And then I 
said to myself, ‘* Between me and the boiling lake and 
the edge of the path walks the Holy Spirit,’ and I 
pushed on fearless and glad. When we were in 
London, a young lady attended the meeting one after- 
- noon in the Royal Albert Hall. She had an abnormal 
fear of the dark. It was absolutely impossible for her 
to go into a dark room alone, but the thought of the 


The Holy Spirit as Revealed in His Names 71 


Holy Spirit as an ever-present Friend sank into her 
mind. She went home and told her mother what a 
wonderful thought she had heard that day, and how it 
had banished forever all fear from her. It was already 
growing very dark in the London winter afternoon and 
her mother looked up and said, ‘‘ Very well, let us 
see if it is real. Go up to the top of the house and 
shut yourself alone in a dark room.” She instantly 
sprang to her feet, bounded up the stairs, went into a 
room that was totally dark and shut the door and sat 
down. All fear was gone, and as she wrote the next 
day, the whole room seemed to be filled with a wonder- 
ful glory, the glory of the presence of the Holy Spirit. 

In the thought of the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete 
there is also a cure forinsomnia. Fortwo awful years, 
I suffered from insomnia. Night after night I would 
go to bed apparently almost dead for sleep; it seemed 
as though I must sleep, but I could not sleep; oh, the 
agony of those two years! It seemed as if I would 
lose my mind if I did not get relief. Relief came at 
last and for years J went on without the suggestion 
of trouble from insomnia. Then one night I retired 
to my room in the Institute, lay down expecting to 
fall asleep in a moment as I usually did, but scarcely 
had my head touched the pillow when I became 
aware that insomnia was back again. If one has 
ever had it, he never forgets it and never mistakes 
it. It seemed as if insomnia were sitting on the 
foot-board of my bed, grinning at me and saying, “lam 
back again for another two years.” ‘¢ Oh,’ I thought, 
“two more awful years of insomnia.” But that very 


72 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


morning, I had been lecturing to our students in the 
Institute about the Personality of the Holy Spirit and 
about the Holy Spirit as an ever-present Friend, and 
at once the thought came to me, “ What were you 
talking to the students about this morning? What 
were you telling them?” and I looked up and said, 
“Thou blessed Spirit of God, Thou art here. I am 
not alone. If Thou hast anything to say to me, I will 
listen,’ and He began to open to me some of the deep 
and precious things about my Lord and Saviour, things 
that filled my soul with joy and rest, and the next thing 
I knew I was asleep and the next thing I knew it was 
to-morrow morning. So whenever insomnia has come 
my way since, I have simply remembered that the Holy 
Spirit was there and I have looked up to Him to speak 
to me and to teach me and He has done so and insomnia 
has taken its flight. 

In the thought of the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete 
there is a cure fora breaking heart. How many aching, 
breaking hearts there are in this world of ours, so full 
of death and separation from those we most dearly love. 
How many a woman there is, who a few years ago, or 
a few months or a few weeks ago, had no care, no 
worry, for by her side was a Christian husband who 
was so wise and strong that the wife rested all responsi- 
bility upon him and she walked care-free through life 
and satisfied with his love and companionship. But 
one awful day, he was taken from her. She was left 
alone and all the cares and responsibilities rested upon 
her. How empty that heart has been ever since; how 
empty the whole world has been. She has just dragged 


The Holy Spirit as Revealed in His Names 73 


through her life and her duties as best she could with 
an aching and almost breaking heart. But there is One, 
if she only knew it, wiser and more loving than 
the tenderest husband, One willing to bear all the care 
and responsibilities of life for her, One who is able, if 
she will only let Him, to fill every nook and corner 
of her empty and aching heart ; that One is the Paraclete. 
I said something like this in St. Andrews’ Hall in 
Glasgow. At the close of the meeting a sad-faced 
Christian woman, wearing a widow’s garb, came to me 
as I stepped out of the hall into the reception room. 
She hurried to me and said, “ Dr. Torrey, this is the 
anniversary of my dear husband’s death. Just one year 
ago to-day he was taken from me. I came to-day to 
see if you could not speak some word to help me. 
You have given me just the word I need. [| will never 
be lonesome again.” A year and a half passed by. I 
was on the yacht of a friend on the lochs of the Clyde. 
One day a little boat put out from shore and came 
alongside the yacht. One of the first to come up the 
side of the yacht was this widow. She hurried to me 
and the first thing she said was, ‘“‘ The thought that 
you gave me that day in St. Andrews’ Hall on the 
anniversary of my husband’s leaving me has been with 
me ever since, and the Holy Spirit does satisfy me and 
fill my heart.” 

But it is in our work for our Master that the thought 
of the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete comes with greatest 
helpfulness. I think it may be permissible to illustrate 
it from my own experience. I entered the ministry 
because I was literally forced to. For years I refused 


74 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


to be a Christian, because I was determined that I 
would not be a preacher, and I feared that if I sur- 
rendered to Christ I must enter the ministry. My 
conversion turned upon my yielding to Him at this 
point. The night I yielded, I did not say, “I will 
accept Christ’ or “ [I will give up sin,” or anything of 
that sort, I simply cried, “ Take this awful burden off 
my heart, and I will preach the Gospel.” But no one 
could be less fitted by natural temperament for the 
ministry than I. From early boyhood, I was extra- 
ordinarily timid and bashful. Even after I had entered 
Yale College, when I would go home in the summer 
and my mother would call me in to meet her friends, 
I was so frightened that when I thought I spoke I did 
not make an audible sound. When her friends had 
gone, my mother would ask, “Why didn’t you say 
something tothem?’’ And I would reply that I sup- 
posed I had, but my mother would say, ‘* You did not 
utter a sound.” ‘Think of a young fellow like that 
entering the ministry. I never mustered courage even 
to speak in a public prayer-meeting until after I was in the 
theological seminary ‘Then J felt, if I was to enter 
the ministry, [ must be able to at least speak in a 
prayer-meeting. I learned a little piece by heart to 
say, but when the hour came, I forgot much of it in 
my terror, At the critical moment, I grasped the 
back of the settee in front of me and pulled myself 
hurriedly to my feet and held on tothe settee. One 
_ Niagara seemed to be going up one side and another 
down another; my voice faltered. I repeated as much 
as I could remember and sat down. ‘Think of a man 


The Holy Spirit as Revealed in His Names 75 


like that entering the ministry. In the early days of 
my ministry, | would write my sermons out in full and 
commit them to memory, stand up and twist a button 
until I had repeated it off as best I could and would 
then sink back into the pulpit chair with a sense of 
relief that that was over for another week. [| cannot 
tell you what I suffered in those early days of my 
ministry. But the glad day came when I came to 
know the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete. When the 
thought got possession of me that when I stood up to 
preach, there was Another who stood by my side, that 
while the audience saw me God saw Him, and that the 
responsibility was all upon Him, and that He was 
abundantly able to meet it and care for it all, and that 
all I had to do was to stand back as far out of sight as 
possible and let Him do the work. I have no dread of 
preaching now; preaching is the greatest joy of my 
life, and sometimes when I stand up to speak and 
realize that He is there, that all the responsibility is 
upon Him, such a joy fills my heart that I can scarce 
restrain myself from shouting and leaping. He is just 
as ready to help us in all our work; in our Sunday- 
school classes ; in our personal work and in every other 
line of Christian effort. Many hesitate to speak to 
others about accepting Christ. “They are afraid they 
will not say the right thing; they fear that they will do 
more harm than they will good. You certainly will 
if you do it, but if you will just believe in the Para- 
clete and trust Him to say it and to say it in His way, 
you will never do harm but always good, It may 
seem at the time that you have accomplished nothing, 


75 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


but perhaps years after you will find out you have 
accomplished much and even if you do not find it out 
in this world, you will find it out in eternity. 

There are many ways in which the Paraclete stands 
by us and helps us of which we will speak at length 
when we come to study His work. He stands by us 
when we pray (Rom: viii. 26, 27); when we study 
the Word (John xiv. 26; xvi. 12-14); when we do 
personal work (Acts vili. 29); when we preach or 
teach (1 Cor. ii. 4); when we are tempted (Rom. viii. 
2); when we leave this world (Acts vii. 54-60). Let 
us get this thought firmly fixed now and for all 
time that the Holy Spirit is One called to our side to 
take our part. 


“« Ever present, truest Friend, 
Ever near, Thine aid to lend.” 


VI 
The Work of the Holy Spirit in the Material 


Universe 


HERE are many who think of the work of 

the Holy Spirit as limited to man. But God 

reveals to us in His Word that the Holy 

Spirit’s work has a far wider scope than this. We are 

taught in the Bible that the Holy Spirit has a threefold 
work in the material universe. 

I. The creation of the material universe and of man ts 
effected through the agency of the Holy Sparit. 

We read in Ps. xxxiii. 6, “¢ By the word of the Lorp 
were the heavens made; and all the host of them dy 
the breath of His mouth.” We have already seen in 
our study of the names of the Holy Spirit that the 
Holy Spirit is the breath of JEHOVAH, so this passage 
teaches us that all the hosts of heaven, all the stellar 
worlds, were made by the Holy Spirit. We are taught 
explicitly in Job xxxiii. 4, that the creation of man is 
the Holy Spirit’s work. We read, “ The Spirit of God 
hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath 
given me life.” Here both the creation of the material 
frame and the impartation of life are attributed to the 
agency of the Holy Spirit. In other passages of Scrip- 
ture we are taught that creation was in and through © 
the Son of God. For example we read in Col, i. 16, 

77 


78 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


R. V., “For in Him were all things created, in the 
heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things 
invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principali- 
ties or powers; all things have been created through 
Him and unto Him.” In a similar Way we read in 
Heb. i. 2, that God “hath at the end of these days 
spoken unto us in His Son, whom He appointed heir 
of all things, through whom also He made the worlds 
(ages).” In the passage given above (Ps. xxxiii. 6), the 
Word as well as the Spirit are mentioned in connec- 
tion with creation. In the account of the creation 
and the rehabilitation of this world to be the abode of 
man, Father, Word and Holy Spirit are all mentioned 
(Gen. i, 1-3). It is evident from a comparison of 
these passages that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are 
all active in the creative work. The Father works in 
His Son, through His Spirit. 

II. Not only is the original creation of the material 
universe attributed to the agency of the Holy Spirit in 
the Bible but the maintenance of living creatures as 
well. 

We read in Ps. civ. 29, 30, “* Thou hidest Thy face, 
they are troubled: Thou takest away their breath, 
they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth 
Thy Spirit, they are created : and Thou renewest the face 
of the earth.” The clear indication of this passage is 
that not only are things brought into being through the 
agency of the Holy Spirit, but that they are maintained 
in being by the Holy Spirit. Not only is spiritual life 
maintained by the Spirit of God but material being as 
well. Things exist and continue by the presence of 


The Holy Spirit in the Material Universe 79 


the Spirit of God in them. This does not mean for a 
moment that the universe is God, but it does mean that 
the universe is maintained in its being by the imma- 
nence of God in it. This is the great and solemn truth 
that lies at the foundation of the awful and debasing 
perversions of Pantheism in its countless forms. 

III. But not only is the universe created through 
the agency of the Holy Spirit and maintained in its ex- 
istence through the agency of the Holy Spirit, but the 
development of the earlier, chaotic, undeveloped states of the 
material universe into higher orders of being is effected 
through the agency of the Holy Spirit. 

We read in Gen. i. 2, 3, ‘¢ And the earth was (or 
became) without form and void; and darkness was 
upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God 
moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, 
Let there be light: and there was light.”” We may 
take this account to refer either to the original crea- 
tion of the universe, or we may take it as the deeper 
students of the Word are more and more inclining to 
take it, as the account of the rehabilitation of the earth 
after its plunging into chaos through sin after the 
original creation described inv. 1. In either case we 
have set before us here the development of the earth 
from a chaotic and unformed condition into its present 
highly developed condition through the agency of the 
Holy Spirit. We see the process carried still further 
in Gen. ii. 7, “ And the Lorp God formed man of the 
dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the 
breath of life; and man became a living soul.’ Here 


again it is through the agency of the breath of God, 


80 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


that a higher thing, human life, comes into being. 
Naturally, as the Bible is the history of man’s redemp- 
tion it does not dwell upon this phase of truth, but 
seemingly each new and higher impartation of the 
Spirit of God brings forth a higher order of being. 
First, inert matter; then motion; then light ; then vege- 
table life ; then animal life; then man; and, as we shall 
see later, then the new man; and then Jesus Christ, 
the supreme Man, the completion of God’s thought of 
man, the Son of Man. This is the Biblical thought 
of development from the lower to the higher by the 
agency of the Spirit of God as distinguished from the 
godless evolution that has been so popular in the gen- 
eration now closing. It is, however, only hinted at in 
the Bible. The more important phases of the Holy 
Spirit’s work, His work in redemption, are those that 
are emphasized and iterated and reiterated. The Word 
of God is even more plainly active in each state of 
progress of creation. God said occurs ten times in the 
first chapter of Genesis. 


VII 


The Holy Spirit Convicting the World of Sin, 
of Righteousness and of J udgment 


UR salvation begins experimentally with our 
() being brought to a profound sense that we 
need a Saviour. The Holy Spirit is the One 
who brings us to this realization of our need. We 
read in John xvi. 8-11, R. V., “And He, when He is 
come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of 
righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they 
believe not on Me; of righteousness, because I go to 
the Father, and ye behold Me no more; of judgment, 
because the prince of this world hath been judged.” 

I. Wesee in this passage that it 7s the work of the Holy 
Spirit to convict men of sin. That is, to so convince of 
their error in respect to sin as to produce a deep sense 
of personal guilt. We have the first recorded fulfill- 
ment of this promise in Acts ii. 36, 37, ‘* Therefore let 
all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath 
made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both 
Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they 
were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to 
the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall 
we do?” ‘The Holy Spirit had come just as Jesus had 
promised that He would and when He came He con- 
victed the world of sin: He pricked them to their 
heart with a sense of their awful guilt in the rejection 

81 


82 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


of their Lord and their Christ. If the Apostle Peter 
had spoken the same words the day before Pentecost, 
no such results would have followed; but now Peter 
was filled with the Holy Spirit (v. 4) and the Holy 
Spirit took Peter and his words and through the instru- 
mentality of Peter and his words convicted his hearers. 
The Holy Spirit is the only One who can convince 
men of sin. ‘The natural heart is ‘* deceitful above all 
things and desperately wicked,” and there is nothing in 
which the inbred deceitfulness of our hearts comes out 
more clearly than in our estimations of ourselves. We 
are all of us sharp-sighted enough to the faults of others 
but we are all blind by nature to our own faults. Our 
blindness to our own shortcomings is oftentimes little 
short of ludicrous. We have a strange power of ex- 
ageerating our imaginary virtues and losing sight utterly 
of our defects. ‘he longer and more thoroughly one 
studies human nature, the more clearly will he see how 
hopeless is the task of convincing other men of sin. 
We cannot do it, nor has God left it forustodo. He 
has put this work into the hands of One who is abun- 
dantly able to do it, the Holy Spirit. One of the worst 
mistakes that we can make in our efforts to bring men 
to Christ is to try to convince them of sin in any power 
of our own. Unfortunately, it is one of the com- 
monest mistakes. Preachers will stand in the pulpit 
and argue and reason with men to make them see and 
realize that they are sinners. ‘They make it as plain 
as day; it is a wonder that their hearers do not see it; 
but they do not. Personal workers sit down beside an 
inquirer and reason with him, and bring forward pas- 


Convicting the World of Sin 83 


sages of Scripture in a most skillful way, the very pas- 
sages that are calculated to produce the effect desired 
and yet there is no result. Why? Because we are 
trying to do the Holy Spirit’s work, the work that He 
alone can do, convince men of sin. If we would only 
bear in mind our own utter inability to convince men 
of sin, and cast ourselves upon Him in utter helpless- 
ness to do the work, we would see results. 

At the close of an inquiry meeting in our church in 
Chicago, one of our best workers brought to me an en- 
gineer on the Pan Handle Railway with the remark, 
““T wish that you would speak to this man. I have 
been talking to him two hours with no result.” I sat 
down by his side with my open Bible and in less than 
ten minutes that man, under deep conviction of sin, 
was on his knees crying to God for mercy. The 
worker who had brought him to me said when the man 
had gone out, “ That is very strange.’? ‘¢ What is 
strange?’ I asked. “Do you know,” the worker 
said, ‘“‘I used exactly the same passages in dealing with 
that man that you did, and though I had worked with 
him for two hours with no result, in ten minutes with 
the same passages of Scripture, he was brought under 
conviction of sin and accepted Christ.’”?> What was 
the explanation? Simply this, for once that worker 
had forgotten something that she seldom forgot, 
namely, that the Holy Spirit must do the work. She 
had been trying to convince the man of sin. She had 
used the right passages; she had reasoned wisely ; she 
had made out a clear case, but she had not looked to 


the only One who could do the work. When she 


84 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


brought the man to me and said, “I have worked with 
him for two hours with no result,” I thought to myself, 
“If this expert worker has dealt with him for two 
hours with no result, what is the use of my dealing 
with him?” and in a sense of utter helplessness I 
cast myself upon the Holy Spirit to do the work and 
He did it. 

But while we cannot convince men of sin, there is 
One who can, the Holy Spirit. He can convince the 
most hardened and blinded man of sin. He can change 
men and women from utter carelessness and indiffer- 
ence toa place where they are overwhelmed with a 
sense of their need of a Saviour. How often we have 
seen this illustrated. Some years ago, the officers of 
the Chicago Avenue Church were burdened over the 
fact that there was so little profound conviction of sin 
manifested in our meetings. “There were conversions, 
a good many were being added to the church, but very 
few were coming with an apparently overwhelming 
conviction of sin. One night one of the officers of 
the church said, “ Brethren, I am greatly troubled by 
the fact that we have so little conviction of sin in our 
meetings. While we are having conversions and many 
accessions to the church, there is not that deep convic- 
tion of sin that I like to see, and I propose that we, 
the officers of the church, meet from night to night to 
pray that there may be more conviction of sin in our 
meetings.” The suggestion was taken up by the en- 
tire committee. We had not been praying many 
nights when one Sunday evening I saw in the front seat 
underneath the gallery a showily dressed man with a 


Convicting the World of Sin 85 


very hard face. A large diamond was blazing from his 
shirt front. He was sitting beside one of the deacons. 
As I looked at him as I preached, I thought to myself, 
‘That man is a sporting man, and Deacon Young has 
been fishing to-day.’’ It turned out that I was right. 
‘The man was the son of a woman who kept a sporting 
house in a Western city. I think he had never been in 
a Protestant service before. Deacon Young had got 
hold of him that day on the street and brought him to 
the meeting. As I preached the man’s eyes were 
riveted upon me. When we went down-stairs to the 
after meeting, Deacon Young took the man with him. 
I was late dealing with the anxious that night. As I 
finished with the last one about eleven o’clock, and almost 
everybody had gone home, Deacon Young came over 
to me and said, “I have a man over here I wish you 
would come and speak with.’’ It was this big sporting 
man. He was deeply agitated. ‘ Oh,” he groaned, 
“ T don’t know what is the matter with me. I never 
felt this way before in all my life,” and he sobbed and 
shook like a leaf. Then he told me this story: ‘ I 
started out this afternoon to go down to Cottage Grove 
Avenue to meet some men and spend the afternoon 
gambling. As I passed by the park over yonder, some 
of your young men were holding an open air meeting 
and I stopped to listen. I saw one man testifying 
whom I had known in a life of sin, and I waited to 
hear what he had to say. When he finished I went on 
down the street. I had not gone far when some strange 
power took hold of me and brought me back and I 
stayed through the meeting. Then this gentleman 


86 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


spoke to me and brought me over to your church, to 
your Yoke Fellows’ Meeting. I stayed to supper with 
them and he brought me up to hear you preach, then 
he brought me down to this meeting.’”’ Here he 
stopped and sobbed, ‘* Oh, I don’t know what is the 
matter with me. I feel awful. I never felt this way 
before in all my life,” 
emotion. ‘*I know what is the matter with you,” I 
said. ‘* You are under conviction of sin; the Holy 
Spirit is dealing with you,” and I pointed him to 
Christ, and he knelt down and cried to God for 
mercy, to forgive his sins for Christ’s sake. 

Not long after, one Sunday night I saw another man 
sitting in the gallery almost exactly above where this 
man had sat. A diamond flashed also from this man’s 
shirt front. I said to myself, ‘There is another 
sporting man.” He turned out to be a travelling man 
who was also asporting man. As I preached, he leaned 
further and further forward in his seat. In the midst of 
my sermon, without any intention of giving out the in- 
vitation, simply wishing to drive a point home, I said, 
*¢ Who will accept Jesus Christ to-night ?’’ Quick asa 
flash the man sprang to his feet and shouted, ‘I will.” 
It rang through the building like the crack of a revolver. 
I dropped my sermon and instantly gave out the invita- 
tion; men and women and young people rose all over 
the building to yield themselves to Christ. God was 
answering prayer and the Holy Spirit was convincing 
men of sin. The Holy Spirit can convince men of 
sin. We need not despair of any one, no matter how 
indifferent they may appear, no matter how worldly, 


and his great frame shook with 


Convicting the World of Sin 87 


no matter how self-satisfied, no matter how irreligious, 
the Holy Spirit can convince men of sin. A young 
minister of very rare culture and ability once came to 
me and said, “I have a great problem on my hands. 
I am the pastor of the church in a university town. 
My congregration is largely made up of university pro- 
fessors and students. They are most delightful people. 
They have very high moral ideals and are living most 
exemplary lives. Now,’’ he continued, “if I had a 
congregation in which there were drunkards and outcasts 
and thieves, I could convince them of sin, but my prob- 
lem is how to make people like that, the most delight- 
ful people in the world, believe that they are sinners, 
how to convict them of sin.’’ I replied, ‘‘ It is impos- 
sible. You cannot do it, but the Holy Spirit can.” 
And so He can. Some of the deepest manifestations 
of conviction of sin I have ever seen have been on the 
part of men and women of most exemplary conduct and 
attractive personality. But they were sinners and the 
Holy Spirit opened their eyes to the fact. 

While it is the Holy Spirit who convinces men of 
sin, He does itthroughus. This comes out very clearly 
in the context of the passage before us. Jesus says in 
the seventh verse, R. V., of the chapter, ‘* Neverthe- 
less I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that 
I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will 
not come unto you; but if I go, I will send Him wato 
you.” Then He goes on to say, “ And when He is come 
(unto you), He will convict the world of sin.” That 
is, our Lord Jesus sends the Holy Spirit unto us (unto 
believers), and when He is come unto us believers, 


88 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit’ 


through us to whom He has come, He convinces the 
world. On the Day of Pentecost, it was the Holy 
Spirit who convinced the 3,000 of sin, but the Holy 
Spirit came to the group of believers and through them 
convinced the outside world. As far as the Holy 
Scriptures definitely tell us, the Holy Spirit has no way 
of getting at the unsaved world except through the 
agency of those who are already saved. Every conver- 
sion recorded in the Acts of the Apostles was through 
the azency of men or women already saved. Take, 
for example, the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. If 
there ever was a miraculous conversion, it was that. 
The glorified Jesus appeared visibly to Saul on his way 
to Damascus, but before Saul could come out clearly 
into the light as a saved man, human instrumentality 
must be brought in. Saul prostrate on the ground cried 
to the risen Christ asking what he must do, andthe 
Lord told him to go into Damascus and there it would 
be told him what he must do. And then Ananias, “a 
certain disciple,” was brought on the scene as the 
human instrumentality through whom the Holy Spirit 
should do His work (cf. Acts ix. 173; xxit. 16), 
Take the case of Cornelius. Here again was a most 
remarkable conversion through supernatural agency. 
“An angel” appeared to Cornelius, but the angel did not 
tell Cornelius what to do to be saved. The angel rather 
said to Cornelius, “Send men to Joppa, and call for 
Simon, whose surname is Peter, who shall tell thee 
words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved” 
(Acts xi. 13, 14). So we may go right through the 
record of the conversions in the Acts of the Apostles 


Convicting the World of Sin 89 


and we will see they were all effected through human 
instrumentality. How solemn, how almost over- 
whelming, is the thought that the Holy Spirit has no 
way of getting at the unsaved with His saving power 
except through the instrumentality of us who are already 
Christians. If we realized that, would we not be more 
careful to offer to the Holy Spirit a more free and 
unobstructed channel for His all-important work? 
The Holy Spirit needs human lips to speak through. 
He needs yours, and He needs lives so clean and so 
utterly surrendered to Him that He can work through 
them. 

Notice of which sin it is that the Holy Spirit con- 
vinces men—the sin of unbelief in Jesus Christ, ‘ Of 
sin because they believe not on Me,” says Jesus. Not 
the sin of stealing, not the sin of drunkenness, not the 
sin of adultery, not the sin of murder, but the sin of 
unbelief in Jesus Christ. The one thing that the 
eternal God demands of men is that they believe on 
Him whom He hath sent (John vi. 29). And the one 
sin that reveals men’s rebellion against God and daring 
defiance of Him is the sin of not believing on Jesus 
Christ, and this is the one sin that the Holy Spirit puts 
to the front and emphasizes and of which He convicts 
men. ‘This was the sin of which He convicted the 
3,000 on the Day of Pentecost. Doubtless, there were 
many other sins in their lives, but the one point that 
the Holy Spirit brought to the front through the 
Apostle Peter was that the One whom they had re- 
jected was their Lord and Christ, attested so to be by 
His resurrection from the dead (Acts il. 22-36). ‘* And 


go The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


when they heard this (namely, that He whom they had 
rejected was Lord and Christ) they were pricked in 
their hearts.”” “This is the sin of which the Holy Spirit 
convinces men to-day. In regard to the comparatively 
minor moralities of life, there is a wide difference 
among men, but the thief who rejects Christ and the 
honest man who rejects Christ are alike condemned at 
the great point of what they do with God’s Son, and 
this is the point that the Holy Spirit presses home. 
The sin of unbelief is the most difficult of all sins of 
which to convince men. ‘The average unbeliever does 
not look upon unbelief as a sin. Many an unbeliever 
looks upon his unbelief as a mark of intellectual su- 
periority. Not unfrequently, he is all the more proud 
of it because it is the only mark of intellectual supe- 
riority that he possesses. He tosses his head and says, 
““T am an agnostic;”’ “I ama skeptic; ’’ or, “* Iam 
an infidel,’? and assumes an air of superiority on that 
account. If he does not go so far as that, the unbe- 
liever frequently looks upon his unbelief as, at the very 
worst, a misfortune. He looks for pity rather than for 
blame. He says, ** Oh, I wish I could believe. J am 
so sorry I cannot believe,” and then appeals to us for 
pity because he cannot believe, but when the Holy 
Spirit touches a man’s heart, he no longer looks upon 
unbelief as a mark of intellectual superiority ; he does 
not look upon it as a mere misfortune; he sees it as 
the most daring, decisive and damning of all sins and 
is overwhelmed with a sense of his awful guilt in that 


he had not believed on the name of the only begotten 
Son of God. 


Convicting the World of Sin Ql 


II. But the Holy Spirit not only convicts of sin, 
He convicts in respect of righteousness. 

He convicts the world in respect of righteousness 
because Jesus Christ has gone to the Father, that is He 
convicts (convinces with a convincing that is self-con- 
demning) the world of Christ’s righteousness attested 
by His going to the Father. ‘[he coming of the Spirit 
is in itself a proof that Christ has gone to the Father 
(cf. Acts ii. 33) and the Holy Spirit thus opens our 
eyes to see that Jesus Christ, whom the world con- 
demned as an evil-doer, was indeed the righteous One. 
The Father sets the stamp of His approval upon His 
character and claims by raising Him from the dead and 
exalting Him to His own right hand and giving to Him 
a name that is above every name. ‘The world at large 
to-day claims to believe in the righteousness of Christ 
but it does not really believe in the righteousness of 
Christ: it has no adequate conception of the righteous- 
ness of Christ. The righteousness which the world 
attributes to Christ is not the righteousness which God 
attributes to Him, but a poor human righteousness, per- 
haps a little better than our own. ‘The world loves to 
put the names of other men that it considers good 
alongside the name of Jesus Christ. But when the 
Spirit of God comes to a man, He convinces him of 
the righteousness of Christ; He opens his eyes to see 
Jesus Christ standing absolutely alone, not only far 
above all men but ‘far above all principality and 
power and might and dominion, and every name that 
is named, not only in this world but also in that which 
is to come ”’ (Eph. 1. 21). 


g2 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 
Ill. Lhe Holy Spirit also convicts the world of judg- 


ment. 

The ground upon which the Holy Spirit convinces 
men of judgment is upon the ground of the fact that 
“‘the Prince of this world hath been judged” (John 
xvi. 11). When Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross, 
it seemed as if He were judged there, but in reality it 
was the Prince of this world who was judged at the 
cross, and, by raising Jesus Christ from the dead, the 
Father made it plain to all coming ages that the cross 
was not the judgment of Christ, but the judgment of 
the Prince of darkness. The Holy Spirit opens our 
eyes to see this fact and so convinces us of judgment. 
There is a great need to-day that the world be con- 
vinced of judgment. Judgment is a doctrine that has 
fallen into the background, that has indeed almost 
sunken out of sight. It is not popular to-day to speak 
about judgment, or retribution, or hell. One who em- 
phasizes judgment and future retribution is not thought 
to be quite up to date; he is considered “ medixval ” 
or even “‘ archaic,’”’ but when the Holy Spirit opens the 
eyes of men, they believe in judgment. In the early 
days of my Christian experience, I had great difficulties 
with the Bible doctrine of future retribution. I came 
again and again up to what it taught about the eternal 
penalties of persistent sin. It seemed as if I could not 
believe it: it must not be true. Time and again | 
would back away from the stern teachings of Jesus 
Christ and the Apostles concerning this matter. But 
one night I was waiting upon God that I might know 
the Holy Spirit in a fuller manifestation of His presence 


Convicting the World of Sin 93 


and His power. God gave me what I sought that 
night and with this larger experience of the Holy 
Spirit’s presence and power, there came such a revela- 
tion of the glory, the infinite glory of Jesus Christ, 
that [ had no longer any difficulties with what the 
Book said about the stern and endless judgment that 
would be visited upon those who persistently rejected 
this glorious Son of God. From that day to this, while 
I have had many a heartache over the Bible doctrine of 
future retribution, I have had no intellectual difficulty 
with it. I have believed it. “The Holy Spirit has con- 
vinced me of judgment. 


Vill 
The Holy Spirit Bearing Witness to Jesus Christ 


HEN our Lord was talking to His disciples 
A on the night before His crucifixion of the 
Comforter who after His departure was to 
come to take His place, He said, “* But when the Com- 
forter is come, whom I will send unto you from the 
Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from 
the Father, He shall bear witness of Me: and ye also 
bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the 
beginning ” (John xv. 26, 27, R. V.), and the Apostle 
Peter and the other disciples when they were strictly 
commanded by the Jewish Council not to teach in the 
name of Jesus said, “* We are witnesses of these things, 
and so is also the Holy Ghost”’ (Acts v. 32). It is clear 
from these words of Jesus Christ and the Apostles that 
it is the work of the Holy Spirit to bear witness con- 
cerning Jesus Christ. We find the Holy Spirit’s testi- 
mony to Jesus Christ in the Scriptures, but beside this 
the Holy Spirit bears witness directly to the individual 
heart concerning Jesus Christ. He takes His own Scrip- 
tures and interprets them to us and makes them clear 
to us. All truth is from the Spirit, for He is “the 
Spirit of truth,” but it is especially His work to bear 
witness to Him who is the truth, that is Jesus Christ 
(John xiv. 6). It is only through the testimony of the 
94 


Bearing Witness to Jesus Christ 95 


Holy Spirit directly to our hearts that we ever come to 
a true, living knowledge of Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 
xii. 3). No amount of mere reading the written Word 
(in the Bible) and no amount of listening to man’s 
testimony will ever bring us to a living knowledge of 
Christ. It is only when the Holy Spirit Himself takes 
the written Word, or takes the testimony of our fellow 
man, and interprets it directly to our hearts that we 
really come to see and know Jesus as He is. On the 
day of Pentecost, Peter gave all his hearers the testi- 
mony of the Scriptures regarding Christ and also gave 
them his own testimony ; he told them what he and the 
other Apostles knew by personal observation regarding 
His resurrection, but unless the Holy Spirit Himself 
had taken the Scriptures which Peter had brought to- 
gether and taken the testimony of Peter and the other 
disciples, the 3,000 would not on that day have seen 
Jesus as He really was and received Him and been 
baptized in His name. The Holy Spirit added His 
testimony to that of Peter and that of the written Word. 
Mr. Moody used to say in his terse and graphic way 
that when Peter said, “‘ Therefore let all the house of 
Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same 
Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ 
(Acts ii. 36), the Holy Spirit said, ‘ Amen’ and the 
people saw and believed.” And it is certain that unless 
the Holy Spirit had come that day and through Peter 
and the other Apostles borne His direct testimony to the 
hearts of their hearers, there would have been no saving 
vision of Jesus on the part of the people. If you wish 
men to get a true view of Jesus Christ, such a view of 


g6 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


Him that they may believe and be saved, it is not 
enough that you give them the Scriptures concerning 
Him; it is not enough that you give them your own 
testimony, you must seek for them the testimony of the 
Holy Spirit and put yourself into such relations with 
God that the Holy Spirit may bear His testimony 
through you. Neither your testimony, nor even that 
of the written Word alone will effect this, though it is 
your testimony, or that of the Word that the Holy 
Spirit uses. But unless your testimony and that of the 
Word is taken up by the Holy Spirit and He Himself 
testifies, they will not believe. This explains some- 
thing which every experienced worker must have 
noticed. We sit down beside an inquirer and open our 
Bibles and give him those Scriptures which clearly 
reveal Jesus as his atoning Saviour on the cross, a 
Saviour from the guilt of sin, and as his risen Saviour, 
a Saviour from the power of sin. It is just the truth 
the man needs to see and believe in order to be saved, 
but he does not see it. We go over these Scriptures 
which to us are as plain as day again and again, and 
the inquirer sits there in blank darkness; he sees 
nothing, he grasps nothing. Sometimes we almost 
wonder if the inquirer is stupid that he cannot see it. 
No, he is not stupid, except with that spiritual blindness 
that possesses every mind unenlightened by the Holy 
Spirit (1 Cor. ii. 14). We go over it again and still 
he does not see it. We go over it again and his face 
lightens up and he exclaims, “I see it. I see it,’’ and 
he sees Jesus and believes and is saved and knows he is 
saved thereon the spot. What has happened? Simply 


——" 


Bearing Witness to Jesus Christ 97 


this, the Holy Spirit has borne His testimony and what 
was dark as midnight before is as clear as day now. 
This explains also why it is that one who has been 
long in darkness concerning Jesus Christ so quickly 
comes to see the truth when he surrenders his will to 
God and seeks light from Him. When he surrenders 
his will to God, he has put himself into that attitude 
towards God where the Holy Spirit can do His work 
(Acts v. 32). Jesus says in John vii.17,R. V., “If 
any man willeth to do His will, he shall know of the 
teaching, whether it be of God, or whether I speak from 
Myself.”” When a man wills to do the will of God, 
then the conditions are provided on which the Holy 
Spirit works and He illuminates the mind to see the 
truth about Jesus and to see that His teaching is the 
very Word of God. John writes in John xx. 31, 
‘But these are written (these things in the Gospel of 
John) that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, 
the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life 
through His name.” John wrote his Gospel for this 
purpose, that men might see Jesus as the Christ, the 
Son of God, through what he records, and that they 
might believe that He is the Christ, the Son of God, 
and that thus believing they might have life through 
His name. The best book in the world to put into 
the hands of one who desires to know about Jesus and 
to be saved is the Gospel of John. And yet many a 
man has read the Gospel of John over and over and 
over again and not seen and believed that Jesus is the 
Christ, the Son of God. But let the same man sur- 
render his will absolutely to God and ask God for light 


98 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


as he reads the Gospel and promise God that he will 
take his stand on everything in the Gospel that He 
shows him to be true and before the man has finished 
the Gospel he will see clearly that Jesus is the Christ, 
the Son of God, and will believe and have eternal 
life. Why? Because he has put himself into the 
place where the Holy Spirit can take the things written 
in the Gospel and interpret them and bear His testi- 
mony. I have seen this tested and proven time and 
time again all around the world. Men have come 
to me and said to me that they did not believe that 
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and many have 
gone farther and said they were agnostics and did 
not even know whether there was a personal God. 
Then I have told them to read the Gospel of John, 
that in that Gospel John presented the evidence 
that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. Often- 
times they have told me they have read it over and over 
again, and yet were not convinced that Jesus was the 
Christ, the Son of God. ‘Then I have said to them, 
“You have not read it the right way,” and I have got 
them to surrender their will to God (or in case where they 
were not sure there was a God, have got them to take 
their stand upon the right to follow it wherever it 
might carry them). “Then I have had them agree to 
read the Gospel of John slowly and thoughtfully, and 
each time before they read to look up to God, if there 
were any God, to help them to understand what they 
were to read and to promise Him that they would take 
their stand upon whatever He showed them to be true, 
and follow it wherever it would carry them. And in 


Bearing Witness to Jesus Christ 99 


every instance before they had finished the Gospel they 
had come to see that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of 
God, and have believed and been saved. They had 
put themselves in that position where the Holy Spirit 
could bear His testimony to Jesus Christ and He had 
done it and through His testimony they saw and be- 
lieved. 

If you wish men to see the truth about Christ, do 
not depend upon your own powers of expression and 
persuasion, but cast yourself upon the Holy Spirit and 
seek for them His testimony and see to it that they put 
themselves in the place where the Holy Spirit can 
testify. ‘This is the cure for both skepticism and ig- 
norance concerning Christ. If you yourself are not 
clear concerning the truth about Jesus Christ, seek for 
yourself the testimony of the Holy Spirit regarding 
Christ. Read the Scriptures, read especially the Gos- 
pel of John but do not depend upon the mere reading 
of the Word, but before you read it, put yourself in 
such an attitude towards God by the absolute surrender 
of your will to Him that the Holy Spirit may bear His 
testimony in your heart concerning Jesus Christ. What 
we all most need is a clear and full vision of Jesus 
Christ and this comes through the testimony of the 
Holy Spirit. One night a number of our students 
came back from the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago 
and said to me, “ We had a wonderful meeting at the 
mission to-night. There were many drunkards and 
outcasts at the front who accepted Christ.”? The next 
day I met Mr. Harry Monroe, the superintendent of 
the mission, on the street, and I said, “« Harry, the boys 


100 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


say you had a wonderful meeting at the mission last 
night.” ** Would you like to know how it came 
about ?”’ he replied. ‘‘ Yes.” Well,” he said, “I 
simply held up Jesus Christ and it pleased the Holy 
Spirit to illumine the face of Jesus Christ, and men 
saw and believed.” It was a unique way of putting it 
but it was an expressive way and true to the essential 
facts in the case. It is our part to hold up Jesus 
Christ, and then look to the Holy Spirit to illumine 
His face or to take the truth about Him and make it 
clear to the hearts of our hearers and He will do it and 
men will see and believe. Of course, we need to be 
so walking towards God that the Holy Spirit may take 
us as the instruments through whom He will bear His 
testimony. 


i i at ets tenn, es z 


ne 


IX 
The Regenerating Work of the Holy Spirit 


P “HE Apostle Paul in Titus iii. 5, R. V., writes, 
“* Not by works done in righteousness, which 
we did ourselves, but according to His mercy 

He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and 

renewing of the Holy Ghost.’ In these words we are 

taught that the Holy Spirit renews men, or makes men 
new, and that through this renewing of the Holy Spirit, 

we are saved. Jesus taught the same in John iii. 3—5, 

‘¢ Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I 

say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot 

see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto Him, 

How can a man be born when he is old? Can he en- 

ter the second time into his mother’s womb and be 

born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, 

Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he 

cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” 

What is regeneration? Regeneration is the imparta- 
tion of life, spiritual life, to those who are dead, spiritually 
dead, through their trespasses and sins (Eph. ii. 1, R. V.). 
It is the Holy Spirit who imparts this life. It is true 
that the written Word is the instrument which the 
Holy Spirit uses in regeneration. We read in 1 Pet. 
i. 23, “* Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but 
of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and 


IOI : 


102 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


abideth forever.”” We read in James i. 18, “ Of His 
own will begat He us with the Word of truth, that we 
should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.” 
These passages make it plain that the Word is the in- 
strument used in regeneration, but it is only as the 
Holy Spirit uses the instrument that the new birth re- 
sults. ‘ It is the Spirit that giveth life” (John vi. 63, 
A. R. V.). In 2 Cor. iii. 6, we are told that “the let- 
ter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.”’! This is some- 
times interpreted to mean that the literal interpretation 
of Scripture, the interpretation that takes it in its strict 
grammatical sense and makes it mean what it says, 
kills ; but that some spiritual interpretation, an interpre- 
tation that “ gives the spirit of the passage,”’ by making 
it mean something it does not say, gives life ; and those 
who insist upon Scripture meaning exactly what it 
says are called ‘ deadly literalists.”” “This is a favourite 
perversion of Scripture with those who do not like to 
take the Bible as meaning just what it says and who 
find themselves driven into a corner and are looking 
about for some convenient way of escape. If one will 
read the words in their context, he will see that this 
thought was utterly foreign to the mind of Paul. In- 
deed, one who will carefully study the epistles of Paul 
will find that he himself was a literalist of the literalists. 
If literalism is deadly, then the teachings of Paul are 


1 Both the translators of the Authorized Version and the Revised 
Version, and even the translators of the American Revision, seem to 
have lost sight of the context, for while they spell « Spirit ” in the 
third verse with a capital, in the sixth verse, in all three versions it 
is spelled with a small «s,” 


Regenerating Work of the Holy Spirit 103 


among the most deadly ever written. Paul will build 
an argument upon the turn of a word, upon a number 
or atense. What does the passage mean? The way 
to find out what any passage means is to study in their 
context the words used. Paul is drawing a contrast 
between the Word of God outside of us, written with 
ink upon parchment or graven on tables of stone, and 
the Word of God written within us in tables that are 
hearts of flesh with the Spirit of the living God (v. 3) 
and he tells us that if we merely have the Word of 
God outside us in a Book or on parchment or on tables 
of stone, that it will kill us, that it will only bring con- 
demnation and death, but that if we have the Word of 
God made a living thing in our hearts, written upon 
our hearts by the Spirit of the living God, that it will 
bring us life." No number of Bibles upon our tables or 
in our libraries will save us, but the truth of the Bible 
written by the Spirit of the living God in our hearts 
will save us. 

To put the matter of regeneration in another way ; 
regeneration 1s the impartation of a new nature, God’s own 
nature to the one who is born again (2 Pet. i. 4). Every 
human being is born into this world with a perverted 
nature ; his whole intellectual, affectional and volitional 
nature perverted by sin. No matter how excellent our 


‘The ministry of many an orthodox preacher and teacher is a 
ministry of death. It is true that the Word of the Gospel is preached 
but it is preached with enticing words of man’s wisdom and not in 
the demonstration of the Spirit and of power (1 Cor. ii. 4¥e) Phe 
Gospel comes in word only and not in power and in the Holy Spirit 
(1 Thess. i, 5), 


104. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


human ancestry, we come into this world with a mind 
that is blind to the truth of God. (‘ The natural man 
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : for they 
are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, 
because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Cor. ii. 14.) 
With affections that are alienated from God, loving the 
things that we ought to hate and hating the things that 
we ought to love. (‘* Now the works of the flesh are 
manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, un- 
cleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, 
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 
envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such 
like.” Gal. v. 19, 20, 21.) With a will that is per- 
verted, set upon pleasing itself, rather than pleasing 
God. (“Because the mind of the flesh is enmity 
against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, 
neither indeed can it be.” Rom. viii. 7, R. V.) In 
the new birth a new intellectual, affectional and voli- 
tional nature is imparted to us. We receive the mind 
that sees as God sees, thinks God’s thoughts after 
Him (1 Cor, ii. 12-14); affections in harmony with 
the affections of God. (‘ The fruit of the Spirit is love, 
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 
meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” 
Gal. v. 22, 23); a will that is in harmony with the 
will of God, that delights to do the things that please 
Him. (Like Jesus we say, “ My meat is to do the 
will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.” 
John iv. 343 cf. John vi. 38; Gal. i. 10.) It is the 
Holy Spirit who creates in us this new nature, or im- 
parts this new nature to us. No amount of preaching, 


Regenerating Work of the Holy Spirit 109 


no matter how orthodox it may be, no amount of mere 
study of the Word will regenerate unless the Holy 
Spirit works. It is He and He alone who makes a 
man a new creature. 

The new birth is compared in the Bible to growth 
from a seed. The human heart is the soil, the Word 
of God is the seed (Luke viii. 11 ; cf. 1 Pet. i. 23; 
Jas. i. 18; 1 Cor. iv. 15), every preacher or teacher of 
the Word is a sower, but the Spirit of God is the One 
who quickens the seed that is thus sown and the Di- 
vine nature springs up as the result. There is abun- 
dant soil everywhere in which to sow the seed, in the 
human hearts that are around about us upon every 
hand. ‘There is abundant seed to be sown, any of us 
can find it in the granary of God’s Word; and there are 
to-day many sowers: but there may be soil and seed 
and sowers, but unless as we sow the seed, the Spirit 
of God quickens it and the heart of the hearer closes 
around it by faith, there will be no harvest. Every 
sower needs to see to it that he realizes his dependence 
upon the Holy Spirit to quicken the seed he sows and 
he needs to see to it also that he is in such relation to 
God that the Holy Spirit may work through him and 
quicken the seed he sows. 

The Holy Spirit does regenerate men. He has 
power to raise the dead. He has power to impart life 
to those who are morally both dead and putrefying. 
He has power to impart an entirely new nature to those 
whose nature now is so corrupt that to men they ap- 
pear to be beyond hope. How often I have seen it 
proven. How often I have seen men and women ut- 


106 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


terly lost and ruined and vile come into a meeting 
scarcely knowing why they came, and as they have sat 
there the Word was spoken, the Spirit of God has 
quickened the Word thus sown in their hearts and in a 
moment that man or woman, by the mighty power of 
the Holy Spirit, has become a new creation. I knowa 
man who seemed as completely abandoned and hopeless 
as men ever become. He was about forty-five years 
of age. He had gone off in evil courses in early boy- 
hood. He had run away from home, had joined the 
navy and afterwards the army, and learned all the vices 
of both. He had been dishonourably discharged from 
the army because of his extreme dissipation and dis- 
orderliness. He had found his companionships among 
the lowest of the low and the vilest of the vile. When 
he would go up the street of a Western town at night, 
and merchants would hear his yell, they would close 
their doors in fear. But this man went one night into 
a revival meeting in a country church out of curiosity. 
He made sport of the meeting that night with a boon 
companion who sat by his side, but he went again the 
next night. The Spirit of God touched his heart. He 
went forward and bowed at the altar. He arose a new 
creation. He was transformed into one of the noblest, 
truest, purest, most unselfish, most gentle and most 
Christlike men I have ever known. Iam sometimes 
asked, ‘* Do you believe in sudden conversion?” [I 
believe in something far more wonderful than sudden 
conversion. I believe in sudden regeneration. Con- 
version is merely an outward thing, the turning around. 
Regeneration goes down to the deepest depths of the 


Regenerating Work of the Holy Spirit 107 


inmost soul, transforming thoughts, affections, will, the 
whole inward man. I believe in sudden regeneration 
because the Bible teaches it and because I have seen it 
times without number. I believe in sudden regenera- 
tion because I have experienced it. We are sometimes 
told that “the religion of the future will not teach sud- 
den miraculous conversion.’ If the religion of the 
future does not teach sudden miraculous conversion, if 
it does not teach something far more meaningful, sud- 
den, miraculous regeneration by the power of the Holy 
Spirit, then the religion of the future will not be in 
conformity with the facts of experience and so will not 
be scientific. It will miss one of the most certain and 
most glorious of all truths. Man-devised religions in 
the past have often missed the truth and man-devised 
religions in the future will doubtless do the same. But 
the religion God has revealed in His Word and the re- 
ligion that God confirms in experience teaches sudden 
regeneration by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit. 
If I did not believe in regeneration by the power of the 
Holy Spirit, I would quit preaching. What would be 
the use in facing great audiences in which there were 
multitudes of men and women hardened and seared, 
caring for nothing but the things of the world and the 
flesh, with no high and holy aspirations, with no out- 
look beyond money and fame and power and pleasure, 
if it were not for the regenerating power of the Holy 
Spirit? But with the regenerating power of the Holy 
Spirit, there is every use; for the preacher can never 
tell where the Spirit of God is going to strike and do 
His mighty work, There sits before you a man who 


108 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


is a gambler, or a drunkard, or a libertine. There 
does not seem to be much use in preaching to him, 
but you can never tell but that very night, the Spirit of 
God will touch that man’s heart and transform him 
into one of the holiest and most useful of men. It has 
often occurred in the past and will doubtless often oc- 
cur in the future. There sits before you a woman, 
who is a mere butterfly of fashion. She seems to have 
no thought above society and pleasure and adulation. 
Why preach to her? Without the regenerating power 
of the Holy Spirit, it would be foolishness and a waste 
of time; but you can never tell, perhaps this very 
night the Spirit of God will shine in that darkened 
heart and open the eyes of that woman to see the 
beauty of Jesus Christ and she may receive Him and 
then and there the life of God be imparted by the 
power of the Holy Spirit to that trifling soul. 

The doctrine of the regenerating power of the Holy 
Spirit is a glorious doctrine. It sweeps away false 
hopes. It comes to the one who is trusting in educa- 
tion and culture and says, ‘¢ Education and culture are 
not enough. You must be born again.” It comes to 
the one who is trusting in mere external morality, and 
says, “External morality is not enough, you must be 
born again.” It comes to the one who is trusting in 
the externalities of religion, in going to church, reading 
the Bible, saying prayers, being confirmed, being bap- 
tized, partaking of the Lord’s supper, and says, ‘ The 
mere externalities of religion are not enough, you must 
be born again.” It comes to the one who is trusting 
in turning over a new leaf, in outward reform, in 


Regenerating Work of the Holy Spirit 109 


quitting his meanness; it says, “* Outward reform, quit- 
ting your meanness is not enough. You must be born 
again.’ But in place of the vague and shallow hopes 
that it sweeps away, it brings in a new hope, a good 
hope, a blessed hope, a glorious hope. It says, “You 
may be born again.” It comes to the one who has no 
desire higher than the desire for things animal or selfish 
or worldly and says, “* You may become a partaker of the 
Divine nature, and love the things that God loves and 
hate the things that God hates. You may become like 
Jesus Christ. You may be born again.” 


X 


The Indwelling Spirit Fully and Forever 
Satisfying 


HE Holy Spirit takes up His abode in the one 
who is born of the Spirit. The Apostle Paul 
says to the believers in Corinth in 1 Cor. iii. 
16, R. V., “ Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, 
and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” This 
passage refers, not so much to the individual believer, 
as to the whole body of believers, the Church. The 
Church as a body is indwelt by the Spirit of God. But 
in 1 Cor. vi. 19, R. V., we read, “ Know ye not that 
your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in 
you, which ye have from God?” It is evident in this 
passage that Paul is not speaking of the body of be- 
lievers, of the Church as a whole, but of the individual 
believer. In a similar way, the Lord Jesus said to His 
disciples on the night before His crucifixion, “ And I 
will pray the Father, and He shall give you another 
Comforter, that He may abide with you forever; Even 
the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, 
because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye 
know Him; for He dwelleth with you and shall be in 
you” (John xiv. 16,17). The Holy Spirit dwells in 
every one who is born again. We readin Rom. viii. 9, 
“If any man have not the Spirit of Christ (the Spirit of 
110 


The Indwelling Spirit 111 


Christ in this verse, as we have already seen, does not 
mean merely a Christlike spirit, but is a name of the 
Holy Spirit) he is none of His.’’ One may be a very 
imperfect believer but if he really is a believer in Jesus 
Christ, if he has really been born again, the Spirit of 
God dwells in him. It is very evident from the First 
Epistle to the Corinthians that the believers in Corinth 
were very imperfect believers ; they were full of imper- 
fection and there was gross sin among them. But 
nevertheless Paul tells them that they are temples of 
the Holy Spirit, even when dealing with them concern- 
ing gross immoralities. (See 1 Cor. vi. 15-19.) The 
Holy Spirit dwells in every child of God. In some, how- 
ever, He dwells way back of consciousness in the 
hidden sanctuary of their spirit. He is not allowed to 
take possession as He desires of the whole man, spirit, 
soul and body. Some therefore are not distinctly 
conscious of His indwelling, but He is there none the 
less. What a solemn, and yet what a glorious thought, 
that in me dwells this august Person, the Holy Spirit. 
If we are children of God, we are not so much to pray 
that the Spirit may come and dwell in us, for He does 
that already, we are rather to recognize His presence, 
His gracious and glorious indwelling, and give to Him 
complete control of the house He already inhabits, and 
strive to so live as not to grieve this holy One, this 
Divine Guest. We shall see later, however, that it is 
right to pray for the filling or baptism with the Spirit. 
What a thought it gives of the hallowedness and 
sacredness of the body, to think of the Holy Spirit 
dwelling within us. How considerately we ought to 


112 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


treat these bodies and how sensitively we ought to shun 
everything that will defile them. How carefully we 
ought to walk in all things so as not to grieve Him 
who dwells within us. 

This indwelling Spirit is a source of full and ever- 
lasting satisfaction and life. Jesus says in John iv. 14, 
R. V., ** Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall 
give him shall never thirst ; but the water that I shall 
give him shall become in him a well of water spring- 
ing up unto (better “into” as in A. V.) eternal life.” 
Jesus was talking to the woman of Samaria by the well 
at Sychar. She had said to Him, “ Art Thou greater 
than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank 
thereof himself, and his children and his cattle?” 
Then Jesus answered and said unto her, “ Whosoever 
drinketh of this water shall thirst again.” How true 
that is of every earthly fountain. No matter how 
deeply we drink we shall thirst again. No éarthly 
spring of satisfaction ever fully satisfies. We may 
drink of the fountain of wealth as deeply as we may, it 
will not satisfy long. We shall thirst again. We may 
drink of the fountain of fame as deeply as any man 
ever drank, the satisfaction is but for an hour. We 
may drink of the fountain of worldly pleasure, of hu- 
man science and philosophy and of earthly learning, we 
may even drink of the fountain of human love, none 
will satisfy long ; we shall thirst again. But then Jesus 
went on to say, “* But whosoever drinketh of the water 
that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water 
_ that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water 
springing up into everlasting life.” The water that 


The Indwelling Spirit 113 


Jesus Christ gives is the Holy Spirit. This John tells 
us in the most explicit language in John vii. 37-39, 
“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus 
stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him 
come unto Me and drink. He that believeth on Me, 
as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall low 
rivers of /iving water. (But this spake He of the Spirit, 
which they that believe on Him should receive.) ihe 
Holy Spirit fully and forever satisfies the one who re- 
ceives Him. He becomes within him a well of water 
Springing up, ever springing up, into everlasting life. 
It is a great thing to have a well that you can carry 
with you; to have a well that is within you ; to have 
your source of satisfaction, not in the things outside 
yourself, but in a well within and that is always within, 
and that is always springing up in freshness and power ; 
to have our well of satisfaction and joy within us. We 
are then independent of our environment. It matters 
little whether we have health or sickness, prosperity or 
adversity, our source of joy is within and is ever spring- 
ing up. It matters comparatively little even whether 
we have our friends with us or are separated from them, 
separated even by what men call death, this fountain 
within is always gushing up and our souls are satisfied. 
Sometimes this fountain within gushes up with greatest 
power and fullness in the days of deepest bereavement. 
At such a time all earthly satisfactions fail. What sat- 
isfaction is there in money, or worldly pleasure, in the 
theatre or the opera or the dance, in fame or power or 
human learning, when some loved one is taken from 
us But in the hours when those that we loved dear- 


114. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


est upon earth are taken from us, then it is that the 
spring of joy of the indwelling Spirit of God bursts 
forth with fullest flow, sorrow and sighing flee away 
and our own spirits are filled with peace and ecstasy. 
We have beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, 
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness 
(Isa. Ixi. 3). If the experience were not too sacred to 
put in print, I could tell of a moment of sudden and 
overwhelming bereavement and sorrow, when it seemed 
as if I would be crushed, when I cried aloud in an 
agony that seemed unendurable, when suddenly and in- 
stantly this fountain of the Holy Spirit within burst 
forth and I knew such a rest and joy as I had rarely 
known before, and my whole being was suffused with 
the oil of gladness. 

The one who has the Spirit of God dwelling within 
as a well springing up into everlasting life is independ- 
ent of the world’s pleasures. He does not need to run 
after the theatre and the opera and the dance and the 
cards and the other pleasures without which life does 
not seem worth living to those who have not received 
the Holy Spirit. He gives these things up, not so 
much because he thinks they are wrong, as because he 
has something so much better. He loses all taste for 
them. 

A lady once came to Mr. Moody and said, “ Mr. 
Moody, I do not like you.” He asked, “¢ Why not?” 
She said, “* Because you are too narrow.” ‘ Narrow! 
I did not know that I was narrow.” “ Yes, you are 
too narrow. You don’t believe in the theatre; you 
don’t believe in cards; you don’t believe in dancing.” 


The Indwelling Spirit 115 


‘“‘ How do you know I don’t believe in the theatre ?” 
he asked. ‘“ Oh,” she said, “I know youdon’t.”” Mr. 
Moody replied, ‘I go to the theatre whenever I want 
to.” What,” cried the woman, ‘““you go to the 
theatre whenever you want to?” “ Yes, I go to the 
theatre whenever I want to.” ‘ Oh,” she said, * Mr. 
Moody, you are a much broader man than | thought 
you were. I am so glad to hear you say it, that you 
go to the theatre whenever you want to.” “ Yes, I go 
to the theatre whenever I want to. I don’t want to.” 
Any one who has really received the Holy Spirit, and 
in whom the Holy Spirit dwells and is unhindered in 
His working will not want to. Why is it then that so 
many professed Christians do go after these worldly 
amusements? For one of two reasons; either because 
they have never definitely received the Holy Spirit, or 
else because the fountain is choked. It is quite pos- 
sible for a fountain to become choked. The best well 
in one of our inland cities was choked and dry for 
many months because an old rag carpet had been thrust 
into the opening from which the water flowed. When 
the rag was pulled out, the water flowed again pure 
and cool and invigorating. There are many in the 
Church to-day who once knew the matchless joy of the 
Holy Spirit, but some sin or worldly conformity, some 
act of disobedience, more or less conscious disobedience, 
to God has come in and the fountain is choked. Let 
us pull out the old rags to-day that this wondrous foun- 
tain may burst forth again, springing up every day and 
hour into everlasting life. 


XI 


The Holy Spirit Setting the Believer Free 
From the Power of Indwelling Sin 


of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made 

me free from the law of sin and death.” What 
the law of sin and death is we learn from the preceding 
chapter, the ninth to the twenty-fourth verses. Paul tells 
us that there was a time in his life when he was “alive 
apart from the law”? (v. 9). But the time came when 
he was brought face to face with the law of God; he 
saw that this law was holy and the commandment holy 


|: Rom. viii. 2 the Apostle Paul writes, “The law 


and just and good. And he made up his mind to keep 
this holy and just and good law of God. But he soon 
discovered that beside this law of God outside him, 
which was holy and just and good, that there was 
another law inside him directly contrary to this law of 
God outside him. While the law of God outside him 
said, “ This good thing” and “this good thing” and 
“this good thing” and ‘this good thing thou shalt do,” 
the law within him said, “You cannot do this 
good thing that you would;” and a fierce combat 
ensued between this holy and just and good law with- 
out him which Paul himself approved after the inward 
man, and this other law in his members which warred 
against the law of his mind and kept constantly saying, 
116 


Setting the Believer Free 117 


“You cannot do the good that you would.’”’ But this 
law in his members (the law that the good that he 
would do, he did not, but the evil that he would not 
he constantly did, v. 19) gained the victory. Paul’s 
attempt to keep the law of God resulted in total 
failure. He found himself sinking deeper and deeper 
into the mire of sin, constrained and dragged down by 
this law of sin in his members, until at last he cried 
out, “ Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver 
me out of the body of this death?” (v. 24, R. V.). 
Then Paul made another discovery. He found that in 
addition to the two laws that he had already found, the 
law of God without him, holy and just and good, and 
the law of sin and death within him, the law that the 
good he would he could not do and the evil he would 
not, he must keep on doing, there was a third law, 
“the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,’’ and 


this third law read this way, ‘“‘ The riehteousHess | 


which you cannot achieve in your own strength by the 
power of your own will approving the law of God, 
the righteousness which the law of God without you, 
holy and just and good though it is, cannot accomplish 
in you, in that it is weak through your flesh, the Spirit 
of life in Christ Jesus can produce in you so that the 
righteousness that the law requires may be fulfilled in 


| 
| 
: 
| 
| 


you, if you will not walk after the flesh but after the l 
Spirit. In other words when we come to the end of + 


ourselves, when we fully realize our own inability to 
keep the Jaw of God and in utter helplessness look up 
to the Holy Spirit in Christ Jesus to do for us that which 
we cannot do for ourselves, and surrender our every 


118 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


thought and every purpose and every desire and every 
affection to His absolute control and thus walk after 
the Spirit, the Spirit does take control and set us free 
from the power of sin that dwells in us and brings our 
"whole lives into conformity to the will of God. Jt is 
the privilege of the child of God in the power of the Holy 
Spirit to have victory over sin every day and every hour 
and every moment. 

There are many professed Christians to-day living 
in the experience that Paul described in Rom. vii. Q-24. 
Each day is a day of defeat and if at the close of the 
day, they review their lives they must cry, “Oh, 
wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me out of 
the body of this death?” There are some who even 
go so far as to reason that this is the normal Christian 
life, but Paul tells us distinctly that this was ‘* when the 
commandment came” (v. g), not when the Spirit 
came; that it is the experience under law and not in 
the Spirit. The pronoun “I” occurs twenty-seven 
times in these fifteen verses and the Holy Spirit is not 
found once, whereas in the eighth chapter of Romans 
the pronoun “I” is found only twice in the whole 
chapter and the Holy Spirit appears constantly. Again 
Paul tells us in the fourteenth verse that this was his 
experience as “carnal, sold under sin.” Certainly, 
that does not describe the normal Christian experience. 
On the other hand in Rom. viii. 9 we are told how 
not to be in the flesh but in the Spirit. In the eighth 
chapter of Romans we have a picture of the true 
Christian life, the life that is possible to each one of us 
and that God expects from each one of us, Here we 


Setting the Believer Free 119 


have a life where not merely the commandment 
comes but the Spirit comes, and works obedience to | 
the commandment and brings us complete victory over 
the law of sin and death. Here we have life, not in _j 
the flesh, but in the Spirit, where we not only see the 
beauty of the law (Rom. vii. 22) but where the 
Spirit imparts power to keep it (Rom. viii. 4). We still 
have the flesh but we are not in the flesh and we do 
not live after the flesh. We “through the Spirit do 
mortify the deeds of the body” (v. 13). The desires 
of the body are still there, desires which if made the 
rule of our life, would lead us into sin, but we day by 
day by the power of the Spirit do put to death the 
deeds to which the desires of the body would lead us. 
We walk by the Spirit and therefore do not fulfill the 
lusts of the flesh (Gal. v. 16, R. V.). We have 
crucified the flesh with the passions and lusts thereof 
(Gal. v. 24, R. V.). It would be gosug too far to say 
we had still a carnal nature, for a carnal nature is a 
nature governed by the flesh; but we have the flesh, but 
in the Spirit’s power, it is our privilege to get daily, 
hourly, constant victory over the flesh and over sin. 
But this victory is not in ourselves, nor in any strength 
of our own. Left to ourselves, deserted of the Spirit 
of God, we would be as helpless as ever. It is still 
true that in us, that is in our flesh, dwelleth no good 
thing (Rom. vii. 18). It is all in the power of the in- 
dwelling Spirit, but the Spirit’s power may be in such 
fullness that one is not even conscious of the presence 
of the flesh. It seems as if it were dead and gone 
forever, but it is only kept in place of death by the 


iat | 


120 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


Holy Spirit’s power. If for one moment we were to 


get our eyes off from Jesus Christ, if we were to 
neglect the daily study of the Word and prayer, down 
_we would go. We must live in the Spirit and walk in 
‘the Spirit if we would have continuous victory 


Vrms 


(Gal. v. 16, 25). The life of the Spirit within us must 
be maintained by the study of the Word and prayer. 
One of the saddest things ever witnessed is the way in 
which some people who have entered by the Spirit’s 
power into a life of victory become self-confident and 
fancy that the victory is in themselves, and that they 
can safely neglect the study of the Word and prayer. 
The depths to which such sometimes fall is appalling. 
Each of us needs to lay to heart the inspired words of 
the Apostle, “Wherefore, let him that thinketh he 
standeth take heed lest he fall” (x Cor. x. ED avin 
once knew a man who seemed to make extraordinary 
strides in the Christian life. He became a teacher of 
others and was greatly blessed to thousands. It 
seemed to me that he was becoming self-confident and 
I trembled for him. I invited him to my room and 
we had a long heart to heart conversation. I told him 
frankly that it seemed as if he were going perilously 
near exceedingly dangerous ground. I said that I 
found it safer at the close of each day not to be too 
confident that there had been no failures nor defeats 
that day but to go alone with God and ask Him to 
search my heart and show me if there was anything in 
my outward or inward life that was displeasing to Him, 
and that very often failures were brought to light that 
must be confessed as sin. “ No,” he replied, “I do 


Setting the Believer Free 121 


not need to dothat. Even if I should do something 
wrong, I would see it at once. I keep very short 
accounts with God, and I would confess it at once.’’ 
I said it seemed to me as if it would be safer to take 
time alone with God for God to search us through and 
through, that while we might not know anything 
against ourselves, God might know something against 
us (1 Cor. iv. 4, R. V.), and He would bring it to light 
and our failure could be confessed and put away. 
“No,” he said, “he did not feel that that was 
necessary.” Satan took advantage of his self-con- 
fidence. He fell into most appalling sin, and though 
he has since confessed and professed repentance, he 
has been utterly set aside from God’s service. 

In John viii. 32 we read, “ Ye shall know the truth 
and the truth shall set you free.’ In this verse it is the 
truth, or the Word of God, that sets us free from the 
power of sin and gives us victory. And in Ps. 
cxix. 11 we read, “ Thy Word have I hid in my heart, 
that I might not sin against Thee.’’ Hereagain it is the 
indwelling Word that keeps us free from sin. In this 
matter as in everything else what in one place is 
attributed to the Holy Spirit is elsewhere attributed to 
the Word. The explanation, of course, is that the 
Holy Spirit works through the Word, and it is futile 
to talk of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us if we neglect the 
Word. If we are not feeding on the Word, we are 
not walking after the Spirit and we shall not have 
victory over the flesh and over sin. 


XII 
The Holy Spirit Forming Christ Within Us 


I: is a wonderful and deeply significant prayer that 
Paul offers in Eph. iii. 16-19 for the believers in 
Ephesus and for all believers who read the Epistle. 
Paul writes, “‘ For this cause I bow my knees unto 
the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on 
earth is named, that He would grant you, according 
to the riches of His glory, that ye may be strengthened 
with power through His Spirit in the inward man ; that 
Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the 
end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may 
be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the 
breadth and length, and height and depth, and to know 
the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye 
may be filled unto all the fullness of God ” (R. V.). We 
have here an advance in the thought over that which 
we have just been studying in the preceding chapter. 
It is the carrying out of the former work to its comple- 
tion. Here the power of the Spirit manifests itself, not 
merely in giving us victory over sin but in four things : 

I. In Christ dwelling in our hearts. The word 
translated “dwell” in this passage is a very strong 
word. It means literally, “ to dwell down,” “ to settle,” 
““to dwell deep.” It is the work of the Holy Spirit to 
form the living Christ within us, dwelling deep down 

122 


Forming Christ Within Us 123 


in the deepest depths of our being. We have already 
seen that this was a part of the significance of the name 
sometimes used of the Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of 
Christ.” In Christ on the cross of Calvary, made an 
atoning sacrifice for sin, bearing the curse of the 
broken law in our place, we have Christ for us. But 
by the power of the Holy Spirit bestowed upon us by 
the risen Christ we have Christ in us. Herein lies the 
secret of a Christlike life. We hear a great deal in 
these days about doing as Jesus would do. Certainly 
we ought as Christians to live like Christ. ‘ He that 
saith he abideth in Him, ought himself so to walk even 
as He walked” (1 John ii. 6). But any attempt on 
our part to imitate Christ in our own strength will only 
result in utter disappointment and despair. ‘There is 
nothing more futile that we can possibly attempt than 
to imitate Christ in the power of our own will. If we 
fancy that we succeed it will be simply because we have 
a very incomplete knowledge of Christ. The more 
we study Him, and the more perfectly we understand 
His conduct, the more clearly will we see how far short 
we have come from imitating Him. But God does not 
demand of us the impossible, He does not demand of 
us that we imitate Christ in our own strength. He 
offers to us something infinitely better, He offers to 
form Christ in us by the power of His Holy Spirit. 
And when Christ is thus formed in us by the Holy 
Spirit’s power, all we have to do is to let this indwell- 
ing Christ live out His own life in us, and then we shall 
be like Christ without struggle and effort of our own. 
A woman, who had a deep knowledge of the Word and 


124 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


a rare experience of the fullness that there is jn Christ, 
stood one morning before a body of ministers as they 
plied her with questions. “Do you mean to say, Mrs. 
H » one of the ministers asked, ‘that you are 
holy?” Quickly but very meekly and gently, the 
elect lady replied, “Christ in me js holy.”” No, we 
are not holy. To the end of the chapter in and of 
ourselves we are full of weakness and failure, but the 
Holy Spirit is able to form within us the Holy One of 
God, the indwelling Christ, and He will live out His 
life through us in all the humblest relations of life as 
well as in those relations of life that are considered 
greater. He will live out His life through the mother 
in the home, through the day-labourer in the pit, through 
the business man in his office—everywhere. 

II. Jn our being rooted and grounded in love (v. 17), 
Paul multiplies figures here. The first figure is taken 
from the tree Shooting its roots down deep into the 
earth and taking fast hold upon it. The second figure 
is taken from a great building with its foundations laid 
deep in the earth on the rock. Paul therefore tells us 
that by the strengthening of the Spirit in the inward 
man we send the roots of our life down deep into the 
soil of love and also that the foundations of the super- 
Structure of our character are built upon the rock of 
love. Love is the sum of holiness, the fulfilling of the 
law (Rom. xiii. 10); love is what we all most need 
in our relations to God, to Jesus Christ and to one an- 
other ; and it is the work of the Holy Spirit to root and 
ground our lives in love. There is the most intimate 
relation between Christ being formed within us, or 


Forming Christ Within Us 125 


made to dwell in us, and our being rooted and grounded 
in love, for Jesus Christ Himself is the absolutely per- 
fect embodiment of divine love. 

III. Jn our being made strong to apprehend with all 
the saints what is the breadth and length and height and 
depth, and toknow the love of Christ which passeth knowl!- 
edge. It is not enough that we love, we must know the 
love of Christ, but that love passeth knowledge. It is so 
broad, so long, so high, so deep, that no one can com- 
prehend it. But we can “apprehend” it; we can 
lay hold upon it; we can make it our own; we can 
hold it before us as the object of our meditation, our 
wonder, and our joy. But it is only in the power of the 
Holy Spirit that we can thus apprehend it. ‘The mind 
cannot grasp it at all, in its own native strength. Aman 
untaught and unstrengthened by the Spirit of God may 
talk about the love of Christ, he may write poetry about 
it, he may go into rhapsodies over it, but it is only 
words, words, words. There is no real apprehension. 
But the Spirit of God makes us strong to really ap- 
prehend it in all its breadth, in all its length, in all its 
depth, and in all its height. 

IV. In our being “‘ filled unto att the fullness of God.” 
There is a very important change between the Au- 
thorized and Revised Version. The Authorized Ver- 
sion reads “ Filled with all the fullness of God.’ The 
Revised Version reads more exactly “ filled umzo all the 
fullness of God.” It is no wonder that the translators 
of the Authorized Version staggered at what Paul said 
and sought to tone down the full force of his words. 
To be filled with all the fullness of God would not be 


126 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


so wonderful, for it is an easy matter to fill a pint cup 
with all the fullness of the ocean, a single dip will do it. 
But it would be an impossibility indeed to fill a pint 
Cup unto all the fullness of the ocean, until all the full- 
ness that there is in the ocean is in that pint cup. But 
it is seemingly a more impossible task that the Holy 
Spirit undertakes to do for us, to fill us “ unto all the 
fullness”? of the infinite God, to fill us until all the 
intellectual and moral fullness that there is in God is in 
us. But this is the believer’s destiny, we are “ heirs of 
God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ ” (Rom. viii. 17), 
i. é.. we are heirs of God to the extent that Jesus Christ 
is an heir of God; that is, we are heirs to all God is 
and all God has. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to 
apply to us that which is already ours in Christ. It is 
His work to make ours experimentally all God has and 
all God is, until the work is consummated in our being 
“filled unto all the fullness of God.” This is not the 
work of a moment, nor a day, nor a week, nor a month, 
nor a year, but the Holy Spirit day by day puts His 
hand, as it were, into the fullness of God and conveys 
to us what He has taken therefrom and puts it into us, 
and then again He puts His hand into the fullness that 
there is in God and conveys to us what is taken there- 
from, and puts it into us, and this wonderful process 
goes on day after day and week after week and month 
after month, and year after year, and never ends until 
we are “filled unto all the fullness of God.” 


XII 


The Holy Spirit Bringing Forth in the Believer 
Christlike Graces of Character 


HERE is a singular charm, a charm that one 
can scarcely explain, in the words of Paul in 
Gal. v. 22, 23, R. V., “* The fruit of the Spirit 
is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, 
faithfulness, meekness, temperance.’’ What a cata- 
logue we have here of lovely moral characteristics. Paul 
tells us that they are the fruit of the Spirit, that is, if 
the Holy Spirit is given control of our lives, this is the 
fruit that He will bear. All real beauty of character, 
all real Christlikeness in us, is the Holy Spirit’s work ; 
it is His fruit; He produces it; He bears it, not we. 
It is well to notice that these graces are not said to be 
the fruits of the Spirit but the fruit, 7. ¢., if the Spirit is 
given control of our life, He will not bear one of these 
as fruit in one person and another as fruit in another 
person, but this will be the one fruit of many flavours 
that He produces in each one. There is also a unity 
of origin running throughout all the multiplicity of 
manifestation. It is a beautiful life that is set forth in 
these verses. Every word is worthy of earnest study 
and profound meditation. Think of these words 
one by one; “ love ”’—“ joy ”—“ peace *’—* longsuf- 
fering ’’ — “‘ kindness ” — “ goodness »” _ “ faith” (or 
127 


128 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


“ faithfulness,” R. V.; faith is the better translation if 
properly understood. The word is deeper than faithful- 
ness. It is a real faith that results in faithfulness) — 
* meekness ”’—“ temperance ” (or a life under per- 
fect control by the power of the Holy Spirit). We 
have here a perfect picture of the life of Jesus Christ 
Himself. Is not this the life that we all long for, the 
Christlike life? -But this life is not natural to us and 
is not attainable by us by any effort of what we are in our- 
selves. The life that is natural to us is set forth in 
the three preceding verses: Now the works of the 
flesh are manifest, which are these, fornication, unclean- 
ness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, 
jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, heresies, envy- 
ings, drunkenness, revellings and such like ” (Gal. v. 
21,R.V.). All these works of the flesh will not mani- 
fest themselves in each individual ; some will manifest 
themselves in one, others in others, but they have one 
common source, the flesh, and if we live in the flesh, 
this is the kind of a life that we will live. It is the life 
that is natural to us. But when the indwelling Spirit 
is given full control in the one He inhabits, when we 
are brought to realize the utter badness of the flesh and 
give up in hopeless despair of ever attaining to anything 
in its power, when, in other words, we come to the end 
of ourselves, and just give over the whole work of 
making us what we ought to be to the indwelling Holy 
Spirit, then and only then, these holy graces of charac- 
ter, which are set forth in Gal. yv. 22, 23, are His fruit 
in our lives. Do you wish these graces in your charac- 
ter and life? Do you really wish them? Then re- 


Christlike Graces of Character 129 


nounce self utterly and all its strivings after holiness, 
give up any thought that you can ever attain to any- 
thing really morally beautiful in your own strength and 
let the Holy Spirit, who already dwells in you (if you 
are a child of God) take full control and bear His own 
glorious fruit in your daily life. 

We get very much the same thought from a different 
point of view in the second chapter and twentieth verse, 
A. R. V., “I have been crucified with Christ; and it 
is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and 
that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, 
the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me 
and gave Himself up for me.” 

We hear a great deal in these days about “ Ethical 
Culture,” which usually means the cultivation of the 
flesh until it bears the fruit of the Spirit. It cannot be 
done ; no more than thorns can be made to bear figs 
and the bramble bush grapes (Luke vi. 44; Matt. xii. 
33). We hear also a great deal about “‘ character build- 
ing.”’ “That may be all very well if you bear constantly 
in mind that the Holy Spirit must do the building, and 
even then it is not so much building as fruit bearing. 
(See, however, 2 Pet. i. 5-7.) We hear also agreat deal 
about ‘‘cultivating graces of character,’ but we must 
always bear it clearly in mind that the way to cultivate 
true graces of character is by submitting ourselves 
utterly to the Spirit to do His work and bear His fruit. 
This is “sanctification of the Spirit” (1 Pet. i. 2; 
2 Thess. ii. 13). There is a sense, however, in which 
cultivating graces of character is right: viz., we look 
at Jesus Christ to see what He is and what we there- 


130 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, 


fore ought to be; then we look to the Holy Spirit to 
make us this that we ought to be and thus, * reflecting 
as a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are transformed 
into the same image from glory to glory, even as from 
the Lord the Spirit” (2 Cor. iii. 18, R. V.). Settle it, 
however, clearly and forever that the flesh can never 
bear this fruit, that you can never attain to these things 
by your own effort that they are “ the fruit of the Spirit.” 


XIV 
The Holy Spirit Guiding the Believer Into 


a Life asa Son 


HE Apostle Paul writes in Rom. viii. 14, 

R. V., ‘For as many as are Jed by the Spirit 

of God, these are the sons of God.’ In this 

passage we see the Holy Spirit taking the conduct of 
the believer’s life. A true Christian life is a personally 
conducted life, conducted at every turn by a Divine 
Person. It is the believer’s privilege to be absolutely 
set free from all care and worry and anxiety as to the 
decisions which we must make at any turn of life. 
The Holy Spirit undertakes all that responsibility for 
us. A true Christian life is not one governed by a 
long set of rules without us, but led by a living and 
ever-present Person within us. It is in this connec- 
tion that Paul says, ‘‘ For ye received not the spirit of 
bondage again to fear.’ AA life governed by rules with- 
out one is a life of bondage. There is always fear that 
we haven’t made quite rules enough, and always the 
dread that in an unguarded moment we may have 
broken some of the rules which we have made. ‘The 
life that many professed Christians lead is one of awful 
bondage; for they have put upon themselves a yoke 
more grievous to bear than that of the ancient Mosaic 
law concerning which Peter said to the Jews of his 

131 


132 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


time, that neither they nor their fathers had been able 
to bear it (Acts xv. 10), Many Christians have a long 
list of self-made rules, “Thou shalt do this,” and 
‘Thou shalt do this,” and “ Thou shalt do this,” and 
‘Thou shalt not do that,” and “ Thou shalt not do 
that,” and “ Thou shalt not do that ”; and if by any 
chance they break one of these self-made rules, or 
forget to keep one-of them, they are at once filled with 
an awful dread that they have brought upon themselves 
the displeasure of God (and they even sometimes fancy 
that they have committed the unpardonable sin). This 
is not Christianity, this is legalism. ‘We have not 
received the spirit of bondage again to fear,” we have 
received the Spirit who gives us the place of sons 
(Rom. viii. 15). Our lives should not be governed by 
a set of rules without us but by the loving Spirit of 
Adoption within us. We should believe the teaching 
of God’s Word that the Spirit of God’s Son dwells 
within us and we should surrender the absolute control 
of our life to Him and look to Him to guide us at 
every turn of life. He will do it if we only surrender 
to Him to do it and trust Him to do it. Ti inva 
moment of thoughtlessness, we go our own way 
instead of His, we will not be filled with an over- 
whelming sense of condemnation and of fear of an 
offended God, but we will go to God as our Father, 
confess our going astray, believe that He forgives us 
fully because He Says so (I John i. g) and go on light 
and happy of heart to obey Him and be led by His 
Spirit. 

Being led by the Spirit of God does not mean for a 


A Life as a Son 133 


moment that we will do things that the written Word 
of God tells us not to do. The Holy Spirit never 
leads men contrary to the Book of which He Himself 
is the Author. And if there is some spirit which is 
leading us to do something that is contrary to the 
explicit teachings of Jesus, or the Apostles, we may be 
perfectly sure that this spirit who is leading us is not 
the Holy Spirit. This point needs to be emphasized 
in our day, for there are not a few who give them- 
selves over to the leading of some spirit, whom they 
say is the Holy Spirit, but who is leading them to do 
things explicitly forbidden in the Word. We must 
always remember that many false spirits and false 
prophets are gone out into the world (1 John iv. 1). 
There are many who are so anxious to be led by some 
unseen power that they are ready to surrender the 
conduct of their lives to any spiritual influence or 
unseen person. In this way, they open their lives to 
the conduct and malevolent influence of evil spirits to 
the utter wreck and ruin of their lives. 

A man who made great professions of piety once 
came to me and said that the Holy Spirit was leading 
him and “a sweet Christian woman,’ whom he had 
met, to contemplate marriage. ‘‘ Why,” I said, in 
astonishment, ‘“‘you already have one wife.” ‘ Yes,” 
he said, “but you know we are not congenial, and we 
have not lived together for years.” ‘ Yes,’’ I replied, 
‘‘— know you have not lived together for years, and | 
have looked into the matter, and I believe that the 
blame for that lies largely at your door. In any event, 
she is your wife. You have no reason to suppose she 


134 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


has been untrue to you, and Jesus Christ explicitly 
teaches that if you marry another while she lives you 
commit adultery’ (Luke xvi. 18). ‘Oh, but,” the 
man said, “the Spirit of God is leading us to love 
one another and to see that we ought to marry one 
another.”’ ‘You lie, and you blaspheme,” I replied. 
‘“‘Any spirit that is leading you to disobey the plain 
teaching of Jesus Christ is not the Spirit of God but 
some spirit of the devil.” This perhaps was an 
extreme case, but cases of essentially the same charac- 
ter are not rare. Many professed Christians seek to 
justify themselves in doing things which are explicitly 
forbidden in the Word by saying that they are led by the 
Spirit of God. Not long ago, I protested to the leaders 
in a Christian assembly where at each meeting many 
professed to speak with tongues in distinct violation of 
the teaching of the Holy Spirit through the Apostle 
Paul in 1 Cor. xiv. 27, 28 (that not more than two or 
at the most, three, shall speak in a tongue in one 
gathering and that not even one shall speak unless 
there was an interpreter, and that no two shall speak 
at the same time). The defense that they made was 
that the Holy Spirit led them to speak several at a time 
and many in a single meeting and that they must obey 
the Holy Spirit, and in such a case as this were not 
subject to the Word. The Holy Spirit never contra- 
dicts Himself. He never leads the individual to do 
that which in the written Word He has commanded us 
all not to do. Any leading of the Spirit must be 
tested by that which we know to be the leading of the 
Spirit in the Word. But while we need to be on our 


A Life as a Son 135 


guard against the leading of false spirits, it is our 
privilege to be led by the Holy Spirit, and to lead a life 
free from the bondage of rules and free from the 
anxiety that we shall not go wrong, a life as children 
whose Father has sent an unerring Guide to lead them 
all the way. 

Those who are thus led by the Spirit of God are 
“ sons of God,”’ that is, they are not merely children of 
God, born it is true of the Father, but immature, but they 
are the grown children, the mature children of God; 
they are no longer babes but sons. ‘The Apostle Paul 
draws a contrast in Gal. iv. 1-7 between the babe 
under the tutelage of the law and differing nothing 
from a servant, and the full grown son who is no more 
a servant but a son walking in joyous liberty. It some- 
times seems as if comparatively few Christians to-day 
had really thrown off the bondage of law, rules outside 
themselves, and entered into the joyous liberty of sons. 


XV 


The Holy Spirit Bearing Witness to our 
Sonship 


NE of the most precious passages in the Bible 
regarding the work of the Holy Spirit is found 
in Rom. viii. 15, 16, R. V.,)) “iFor syei ree 

ceived not the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye 
received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, 
Father. The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our 
Spirit, that we are the children of God.” There are two 
witnesses to our sonship, first, our own spirit, taking 
God at His Word (“ As many as received Him, to them 
gave He power to become the sons of God,” John i. 
12), bears witness to our sonship. Our own spirit 
unhesitatingly affirms that what God Says is true that 
we are sons of God because God says so. But there is 
another witness to our sonship, namely, the Holy Spirit. 
He bears witness together with our spirit. ‘¢ Together 
with” is the force of the Greek used in this passage. 
It does not say that He bears witness ¢o our spirit but 
“ together with” it. How He does this is explained in 
Gal. iv. 6, “ Because ye are sons, God hath sent 
forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, 
Abba, Father.” When we have received Jesus Christ 
as our Saviour and accepted God’s testimony concern- 
ing Christ that through Him we have become sons, the 

136 


Bearing Witness to Our Sonship —137 


Spirit of His Son comes into our hearts filling them 
with an overwhelming sense of sonship, and crying 
through our hearts, “Abba, Father.’ The natural 
attitude of our hearts towards God is not that of sons. 
We may call Him Father with our lips, as when for 
example we repeat in a formal way, the prayer that 
Jesus taught us, “ Our Father, which art in heaven,” 
but there is no real sense that He is our Father. Our 
calling Him so is mere words. We do not really trust 
Him. We do not love to come into His presence ; 
we do not love to look up into His face with a sense 
of wonderful joy and trust because we are talking to 
our Father. We dread God. We come to Him in 
prayer because we think we ought to and perhaps we 
are afraid of what might happen if we did not. But 
when the Spirit of His Son bears witness together with 
our spirit to our sonship, then we are filled and thrilled 
with the sense that we are sons. We trust Him as we 
never even trusted our earthly Father. There is even 
less fear of Him than there was of our earthly father. 
Reverence there is, awe, but oh! such a sense of 
wonderful childlike trust. 

Notice when it is that the Spirit bears witness with 
our spirit that we are the children of God. We have 
the order of experience in the order of the verses in 
Rom. viii. First we see the Holy Spirit setting us free 
from the law of sin and death, and consequently, the 
righteousness of the law fulfilled in us who walk not 
after the law but after the Spirit (vs. 2-4); then we 
have the believer not minding the things of the flesh 
but the things of the Spirit (v. 5); then we have the 


138 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


believer day by day through the Spirit putting to death 
the deeds of the body (v. 13); then we have the 
believer led by the Spirit of God; then and only then, 
we have the Spirit bearing witness to our sonship. 
There are many seeking the witness of the Spirit to 
their sonship in the wrong place. They practically 
demand the witness of the Spirit to their sonship before 
they have even confessed their acceptance of Christ, 
and certainly before they have surrendered their lives 
fully to the control of the indwelling Spirit of God. 
No, let us seek things in their right order. Let us 
accept Jesus Christ as our Saviour, and surrender to 
Him as our Lord and Master, because God commands 
us to do so; let us confess Him before the world 
because God commands that (Matt. x. 32, 33; Rom. 
x. 9, 10); let us assert that our sins are forgiven, that 
we have eternal life, that we are sons of God because 
God says so in His Word and we are unwilling to make 
God a liar by doubting Him (Acts x. 43; xiii. 38, 393 
1 John v. 10-135 John v. 24; John i. 12); let us 
surrender our lives to the control of the Spirit of Life, 
looking to Him to set us free from the law of sin and 
death; let us set our minds, not upon the things of the 
flesh but the things of the Spirit; let us through the 
Spirit day by day put to death the deeds of the body ; 
let us give our lives up to be led by the Spirit of God 
in all things ; and zhen let us simply trust God to send 
the Spirit of His Son into our hearts filling us with a 
sense of sonship, crying, ‘‘ Abba, Father,’ and He will 
do it. 

God, our Father, longs that we shall know and 


Bearing Witness to Our Sonship =: 139 


realize that we are His sons. He longs to hear us call 
Him Father from hearts that realize what they say, 
and that trust Him without a fear or anxiety. He is 
our Father, He alone in all the universe realizes the 
fullness of meaning that there is in that wonderful 
word “Father,” and it brings joy to Him to have us 
realize that He is our Father and to call Him so. 
Some years ago there was a father in the state of 
Illinois, who had a child who had been deaf and dumb 
from her birth. It was a sad day in that home when 
they came to realize that that little child was deaf and 
would never hear and, as they thought, would never 
speak. ‘The father heard of an institution in Jackson- 
ville, Ill., where deaf children were taught totalk. He 
took this little child to the institution and put her in 
charge of the superintendent. After the child had 
been there some time, the superintendent wrote telling 
the father that he would better come and visit his child. 
A day was appointed and the child was told that her 
father was coming. As the hour approached, she sat 
up in the window, watching the gate for her father to 
pass through. The moment he entered the gate she 
saw him, ran down the stairs and ran out on the lawn, 
met him, looked up into his face and lifted up her 
hands and said, ‘¢ Papa.”?” When that father heard the 
dumb lips of his child speak for the first time and frame 
that sweet word ‘ Papa,’ such a throb of joy passed 
through his heart that he literally fell to the ground and 
rolled upon the grass in ecstasy. But there is a Father 
who loves as no earthly father, who longs to have His 
children realize that they are children, and when we 


>> 


140 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


look up into His face and from a heart which the Holy 
Spirit has filled with a sense of sonship call Him 


‘““ Abba” (papa), ‘‘ Father,” no language can describe 
the joy of God. 


XVI 
The Holy Spirit as a Teacher 


UR Lord Jesus in His last conversation with 
() His disciples before His crucifixion said, 

‘¢ But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost, Ne 
whom the Father will send in My name, He shall By, 
you all things, and bring all things to your remem- 
brance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John xiv. 

26). 

Here we have a twofold work of the Holy Spirit, 
teaching and bringing to remembrance the things which 
Christ had already taught. We will take them in the 


reverse order. 


I. The Holy Spirit brings to remembrance the words of 
Christ. 

This promise was made primarily to the Apostles and 
is the guarantee of the accuracy of their report of what 
Jesus said; but the Holy Spirit does a similar work 
with’each believer who expects it of Him, and who looks 
to Him to do it. The Holy Spirit brings to our mind 
the teachings of Christ and of the Word just when we 
need them for either the necessities of our life or of 
our service. Many of us could tell of occasions when 
we were in great distress of soul or great questioning as 
to duty or great extremity as to what to say to one 

141 


142 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


whom we were trying to lead to Christ or to help, and 
at that exact moment the very Scripture we needed— 
some passage it may be we had not thought of for a 
long time and quite likely of which we had never 
thought in this connection—was brought to mind. 
Who did it? ‘The Holy Spirit did it. He is ready to 
do it even more frequently, if we only expect it of Him 
and look to Him to do it. It is our privilege every 
time we sit down beside an inquirer to point him to the 
way of life to look up to the Holy Spirit and say, 
‘Just what shall I say to this inquirer? Just what 
Scripture shall I use?” There is a deep significance 
in the fact that in the verse immediately following this 
precious promise Jesus says, ‘* Peace I leave with you, 
My peace I give unto you.” It is by the Spirit bringing 
His words to remembrance and teaching us the truth 
of God that we obtain and abide in this peace. If we 
will simply look to the Holy Spirit to bring to mind 
Scripture just when we need it, and just the Scripture 
we need, we shall indeed have Christ’s peace every 
moment of our lives. One who was preparing for 
Christian work came to me in great distress. He said 
he must give up his preparation for he could not 
memorize the Scriptures. ‘* I am thirty-two years old,” 
he said, ‘‘and have been in business now for years. I 
have gotten out of the habit of study and I cannot 
memorize anything.” The man longed to be in his 
Master’s service and the tears stood in his eyes as he 
said it. ‘Don’t be discouraged,” I replied. ‘Take 
your Lord’s promise that the Holy Spirit will bring His 
words to remembrance, learn one passage of Scripture, 


The Holy Spirit as a Teacher 143 


fix it firmly in your mind, then another and then an- 
cther and look to the Holy Spirit to bring them to your 
remembrance when you need them.” He went on 
with his preparation. He trusted the Holy Spirit. 
Afterwards he took up work in a very difficult field, a 
field where all sorts of error abounded. They would 
gather around him on the street like bees and he would 
take his Bible and trust the Holy Spirit to bring to re- 
membrance the passages of Scripture that he needed and 
He did it. His adversaries were filled with confusion, 
as he met them at every point with the sure Word of 
God, and many of the most hardened were won for 
Christ. 


II. The Holy Spirit will teach us all things. 

There is a still more explicit promise to this effect 
two chapters further on in John xvi. 12, 13, 14, R. V. 
Here Jesus says, ‘I have yet many things to say unto 
you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when 
He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into 
all the truth: for He shall not speak from Himself ; 
but what things soever He shall hear, these shall He 
speak: and He shall declare unto you the things that 
are to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall take 
of Mine, and shall declare it unto you.”’ This promise 
was made in the first instance to the Apostles, but the 
Apostles themselves applied it to all believers (1 John 
120/27). 

It is the privilege of each believer in Jesus Christ, 
even the humblest, to be ‘taught of God.” Each 
humblest believer is independent of human teachers— 


i144 ‘The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


‘Ye need not that any teach you” (1 John ii. 27, 
R.V.). This, of course, does not mean that we may not 
learn much from others who are taught of the Holy 
Spirit. If John had thought that he would never have 
written this epistle to teach others. The man who is 
the most fully taught of God is the very one who will 
be most ready to listen to what God has taught others. 
Much less does it mean that when we are taught of the 
Spirit, we are independent of the written Word of God; 
for the Word is the very place to which the Spirit, who 
is the Author of the Word, leads His pupils and the 
instrument through which He instructs them (Eph. 
vi. 173 John vi. 33; Eph. v. 18, 19; cf. Col. iii. 16). 
But while we may learn much from men, we are not 
dependent upon them. We have a Divine Teacher, 
the Holy Spirit. 

We shall never truly know the truth until we are 
thus taught directly by the Holy Spirit. No amount of 
mere human teaching, no matter who our teachers may 
be, will ever give us a correct and exact and full ap- 
prehension of thetruth. Not even a diligent study of 
the Word either in the English or in the original lan- 
guages will give us a real understanding of the truth. 
We must be taught directly by the Holy Spirit and we 
may be thus taught, each one of us. The one who is thus 
taught will understand the truth of God better even if 
he does not know one word of Greek or Hebrew, than 
the one who knows Greek and Hebrew thoroughly and 
all the cognate languages as well, but who is not taught 
of the Spirit. 

The Spirit will guide the one whom He thus teaches 


The Holy Spirit as a Teacher 145 


“‘into all the truth.” The whole sphere of God’s 
truth is for each one of us, but the Holy Spirit will not 
guide us into all the truth in a single day, nor in a 
week, nor in a year, but step by step. There are two 
especial lines of the Spirit’s teaching mentioned : 

(1) ‘*He shall declare unto you the things that are 
to come.’”” There are many who Say we can know 
nothing of the future, that all our thoughts on that sub- 
ject are guesswork. It is true that we cannot know 
everything about the future. There are some things 
which God has seen fit to keep to Himself, secret 
things which belong to Him (Deut. xxix. 29). For 
example, we cannot “ know the times, or the seasons ” 
of our Lord’s return (Acts i. 7), but there are many 
things about the future which the Holy Spirit will 
reveal to us. 

(2) ‘He shall ghrify Me (that is, Christ) for He 
shall take of Mine and shall declare it unto you.” 
This is the Holy Spirit’s especial line of teaching with 
the believer, as with the unbeliever, Jesus Christ. It 
is His work above all else to reveal Jesus Christ and 
to glorify Him. His whole teaching centres in Christ. 
From one point of view or the other, He is always bring- 
ing us to Jesus Christ. There are some who fear to em- 
phasize the truth about the Holy Spirit lest Christ Him- 
self be disparaged and put in the background, but there 
is no one who magnifies Christ as the Holy Spirit does. 
We shall never understand Christ, nor see His glory 
until the Holy Spirit interprets Him to us. No 
amount of listening to sermons and lectures, no matter 
how able, no amount of mere study of the Word even, 


146 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


would ever give us to see “the things of Christ”; the 
Holy Spirit must show us and He is willing to do it 
and He can do it. He is longing to do it. The Holy 
Spirit’s most intense desire is to reveal Jesus Christ to 
men. On the day of Pentecost when Peter and the 
rest of the company were “filled with the Holy 
Spirit,” they did not talk much about the Holy Spirit, 
they talked about Christ. Study Peter’s sermon on 
that day ; Jesus Christ was his one theme, and Jesus 
Christ will be our one theme, if we are taught of the 
Spirit; Jesus Christ will occupy the whole horizon of 
our vision. We will have a new Christ, a glorious 
Christ. Christ will be so glorious to us that we will 
long to go and tell every one about this glorious One 
whom we have found. Jesus Christ is so different 
when the Spirit glorifies Him by taking of His things 
and showing them unto us. 


Ill. The Holy Spirit reveals to us the deep things of 
God which are hidden from and are foolishness to the 
natural man. 

We read in 1 Cor. ii. 9-13, “Eye hath not seen, 
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of 
man, the things which God hath prepared for them 
that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us 
by is Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the 
deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things 
of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? 
Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the 
Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit 
of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we 


The Holy Spirit as a Teacher 147 


might know the things that are freely given to us of 
God. Which things also we speak, not in the words 
which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy 
Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with 
spiritual.”’ This passage, of course, refers primarily 
to the Apostles but we cannot limit this work of the 
Spirit to them. The Spirit reveals to the individual 
believer the deep things of God, things which human 
eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, things which have 
not entered into the heart of man, the things 
which God hath prepared for them that love Him. It 
is evident from the context that this does not refer 
solely to heaven, or the things to come in the life 
hereafter. The Holy Spirit takes the deep things of 
God which God hath prepared for us, even in the life 
that now is, and reveals them to us. 


IV. The Holy Spirit interprets Hts own revelation. 
He imparts power to discern, know and appreciate what 
He has taught. 

In the next verse to those just quoted we read, 
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the 
Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: 
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually 
discerned” (1 Cor. iii. 14). Not only is the Holy 
Spirit the Author of revelation, the written Word of 
God: He is also the Interpreter of what He has 
revealed. Any profound book is immeasurably more 
interesting and helpful when we have the author of the 
book right at hand to interpret it to us, and it is always 
our privilege to have the author of the Bible right at 


148 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


hand when we study it. The Holy Spirit is the 
Author of the Bible and He stands ready to interpret 
its meaning to every believer every time he opens the 
Book. To understand the Book, we must look to 
Him, then the darkest places become clear. We often 
need to pray with the Psalmist of old, “ Open Thou 
mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of 
Thy law ” (Ps. cxix. 18). It is not enough that we 
have the revelation of God before us in the written 
Word to study, we must also have the inward illumi- 
nation of the Holy Spirit to enable us to apprehend it 
as we study. It is a common mistake, but a most 
palpable mistake, to try to comprehend a spiritual 
revelation with the natural understanding. It is the 
foolish attempt to do this that has landed so many in 
the bog of so-called “ Higher Criticism.” In order to 
understand art a man must have esthetic sense as well 
as the knowledge of colours and of paint, and a man 
to understand a spiritual revelation must be taught of 
the Spirit. A mere knowledge of the languages in 
which the Bible was written is not enough. A man 
with no zsthetic sense might as well expect to appre- 
ciate the Sistine Madonna, because he is not colour 
blind, as a man who is not filled with the Spirit to 
understand the Bible, simply because he understands 
the vocabulary and the laws of grammar of the lan- 
guages in which the Bible was written. We might as 
well think of setting a man to teach art because he un- 
derstood paints as to set a man to teach the Bible be- 
cause he has a thorough understanding of Greek and 
Hebrew. In our day we need not only to recognize 


The Holy Spirit as a Teacher 149 


the utter insufficiency and worthlessness before God of 
our own righteousness, which is the lesson of the open- 
ing chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, but also the 
utter insufficiency and worthlessness in the things of 
God of our own wisdom, which is the lesson of the 
First Epistle to the Corinthians, especially the first to 
the third chapters. (See for example 1 Cor. i. 19-21, 
20027) 

The Jews of old had a revelation by the Spirit but 
they failed to depend upon the Spirit Himself to inter- 
pret it to them, so they went astray. So Christians 
to-day have a revelation by the Spirit and many are 
failing to depend upon the Holy Spirit to interpret it to 
them and so they go astray. “The whole evangelical 
church recognizes theoretically at least the utter in- 
sufficiency of man’s own righteousness. What it needs 
to be taught in the present hour, and what it needs to 
be made to feel, is the utter insufficiency of man’s 
wisdom. That is perhaps the lesson which this 
twentieth century of towering intellectual conceit 
needs most of any to learn. To understand God’s 
Word, we must empty ourselves utterly of our own 
wisdom and rest in utter dependence upon the Spirit of 
God to interpret it to us. We do well to lay to heart 
the words of Jesus Himself in Matt. xi. 25, “I thank 
thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because 
Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, 
and hast revealed them unto babes.”? A number of 
Bible students were once discussing the best methods 
of Bible study and one man, who was in point of fact 
a learned and scholarly man, said, “I think the best 


150 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


method of Bible study is the baby method.” When 
we have entirely put away our own righteousness, then 
and only then, we get the righteousness of God (Phil. 
il, 4-7, 9; Rom. x. 3). And when we have en- 
tirely put away our own wisdom, then, and only then, 
we get the wisdom of God. ‘ Let no man deceive 
himself,” says the Apostle Paul. ‘If any man among 
you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a 
fool, that he may be wise”’ (1 Cor. iii. 18). And the 
emptying must precede filling, the self poured out that 
God may be poured in. 

We must daily be taught by the Spirit to understand 
the Word. We cannot depend to-day on the fact that 
the Spirit taught us yesterday. Each new time that 
we come in contact with the Word, it must be in the 
power of the Spirit for that specific occasion. "That 
the Holy Spirit once illumined our mind to grasp a 
certain truth is not enough. He must do it each time 
we confront that passage. Andrew Murray has well 
said, “‘ Each time you come to the Word in study, in 
hearing asermon, or reading a religious book, there 
ought to be as distinct as your intercourse with the 
external means, the definite act of self-abnegation, 
denying your own wisdom and yielding yourself in 
faith to the Divine teacher”’ (“ The Spirit of Christ,” 


page 221). 


V. The Holy Spirit enables the believer to communicate 
to others in power the truth he himself has been taught. 

Paul says in 1 Cor. ii. 1-5, *¢ And I, brethren, when 
I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or 


The Holy Spirit as a Teacher 151 


of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 
For 1 determined not to know anything among you, 
save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with 
you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. 
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing 
words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the 
Spirit and of power: ‘That your faith should not stand 
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” In 
a similar way in writing to the believers in Thessa- 
lonica in 1 Thess. i. 5, ‘¢ For our Gospel came not 
unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the 
Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what 
manner of men we were among you for your sake.”’ 
We need not only the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth to 
chosen apostles and prophets in the first place, and the 
Holy Spirit in the second place to interpret to us as 
individuals the truth He has thus revealed, but in the 
third place, we need the Holy Spirit to enable us to 
effectually communicate to others the truth which He 
Himself has interpreted to us. We need Him all 
along the line. One great cause of real failure in the 
ministry, even when there is seeming success, and not 
only in the regular ministry but in all forms of service 
as well, comes from the attempt to teach by “ enticing 
words of man’s wisdom ”’ (that is, by the arts of human 
logic, rhetoric, persuasion and eloquence) what the 
Holy Spirit has taught us. What is needed is Holy Ghost 
power, ‘demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” 
There are three causes of failure in preaching to-day. 
First, Some other message is taught than the message 


which the Holy Spirit has revealed in the Word. (Men 


152 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


preach science, art, literature, philosophy, sociology, 
history, economics, experience, etc., and not the simple 
Word of God as found in the Holy Spirit’s Book,— 
the Bible.) Second, The Spirit-taught message of the 
Bible is studied and sought to be apprehended by the 
natural understanding, that is, without the Spirit’s illumi- 
nation. How common that is, even in institutions 
where men are being trained for the ministry, even in- 
stitutions which may be altogether orthodox. Third, 
The  Spirit-given message, the Word, the Bible 
studied and apprehended under the Holy Ghost’s illumi- 
Nation is given out to others with “ enticing words of 
man’s wisdom,” and not in *¢ demonstration of the Spirit 
and of power.” We need, and we are absolutely de- 
pendent upon the Spirit all along the line. He must 
teach us how to speak as well as what to speak. His 
must be the power as well as the message. 


XVII 


Praying, Returning Thanks, Worshipping tn 
the Holy Spirit 


WO of the most deeply significant passages in 
the Bible on the subject of the Holy Spirit 
and on the subject of prayer are found in 

Jude 20 and Eph. vi. 18. In Jude 20 we read, “ But ye, 
beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, 
praying in the Holy Ghost,” and in Eph. vi. 18, “ Pray- 
ing always with all prayer and supplication im the Spirit, 
and watching thereunto with all perseverance and sup- 
plication for all saints.” 

These passages teach us distinctly that the Holy 
Spirit guides the believer in prayer. The disciples did 
not know how to pray as they ought so they came to 
Jesus and said, “ Lord, teach us to pray > (Luke xi. I). 
We to-day do not know how to pray as we 
ought—we do not know what to pray for, nor how 
to ask for it—but there is One who is always at hand 
to help (John xiv. 16, 17) and He knows what we 
should pray for. He helps our infirmity in this matter 
of prayer as in other matters (Rom. vill. DOWIE): 
He teaches us to pray. True prayer is prayer in the 
Spirit (7. ¢., the prayer that the Holy Spirit inspires and 
directs). The prayer in which the Holy Spirit leads 
us is the prayer “ according to the will of God ”’ 


153 


154 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


(Rom. viii. 27). When we ask anything according to 
God’s will, we know that He hears us and we know 
that He has granted the things that we ask (1 John 
v. 14, 15). We may know it is ours at the moment 
when we pray just as surely as we know it afterwards 
when we have it in our actual possession. But how 
can we know the will of God when we pray? In two 
ways: First of all, by what is written in His Word; 
all the promises in the Bible are sure and if God 
promises anything in the Bible, we may be sure it is 
His will to give us that thing; but there are many 
things that we need which are not specifically promised 
in the Word and still even iri that case it is our privi- 
lege to know the will of God, for it is the work of the 
Holy Spirit to teach us God’s will and lead us out in 
prayer along the line of God’s will. Some object to 
the Christian doctrine of prayer; for they say that it 
teaches that we can go to God in our ignorance and 
change His will and subject His infinite wisdom to our 
erring foolishness. But that is not the Christian 
doctrine of prayer at all; the Christian doctrine of 
prayer is that it is the believer’s privilege to be taught 
by the Spirit of God Himself to know what the will 
of God is and not to ask for the things that our foolish- 
ness would prompt us to ask for but to ask for things 
that the never-erring Spirit of God prompts us to ask 
for. ‘True prayer is prayer ‘in the Spirit,’’ that is, 
the prayer which the Spirit inspires and directs. When 
we come into God’s presence, we should recognize 
our infirmity, our ignorance of what is best for us, our 
ignorance of what we should pray for, our ignorance 


Praying, Returning Thanks 155 


of how we should pray for it and in the consciousness of 
our utter inability to pray aright look up to the Holy 
Spirit to teach us to pray, and cast ourselves utterly 
upon Him to direct our prayers and to lead out our 
desires and guide our utterance of them. ‘There is no 
place where we need to recognize our ignorance more 
than we do in prayer. Rushing heedlessly into God’s 
presence and asking the first thing that comes into our 
minds, or that some other thoughtless one asks us to 
pray for, is not praying “in the Holy Spirit’’ and is 
not true prayer. We must wait for the Holy Spirit 
and surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit. ‘The 
prayer that God, the Holy Spirit, inspires is the prayer 
that God, the Father, answers. 

The longings which the Holy Spirit begets in our 
hearts are often too deep for utterance, too deep 
apparently for clear and definite comprehension on the 
part of the believer himself in whom the Spirit is 
working—“ The Spirit Himself maketh intercession 
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered’’ (Rom. 
viii. 26, R. V.). God Himself ‘ must search the 
heart’ to know what is ‘the mind of the Spirit ” in these 
unuttered and unutterable longings. But God does 
know what is the mind of the Spirit; He does know 
what these Spirit-given longings which we cannot put 
into words mean, even if we do not, and these longings 
are “according to the will of God,”’ and God grants 
them. It is in this way that it comes to pass that 
God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all 
that we ask or think, according to the power that 
worketh in us (Eph. ili. 20). “There are other times 


is6 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


when the Spirit’s leadings are so clear that we pray with 
the Spirit and with the understanding also (1 Cor. 
xiv. 15). We distinctly understand what it is that 
the Holy Spirit leads us to pray for. 

Il. The Holy Spirit inspires the believer and guides 
him in thanksgiving as well as in prayer. We read in 
Eph. v. 18-20, R. V., “And be not drunken with 
wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit ; 
speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and 
spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your 
heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things in 
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the 
Father.”” Not only does the Holy Spirit teach us to 
pray, He also teaches us to render thanks. One of the 
most prominent characteristics of the Spirit-filled life is 
thanksgiving. On the Day of Pentecost, when the 
disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke as 
the Spirit gave them utterance, we hear them telling 
the wonderful works of God (Acts ii. 4, 11), and 
to-day when any believer is filled with the Holy Spirit, 
he always becomes filled with thanksgiving and praise. 
True thanksgiving is “to God, even the Father,” 
through, or “in the name of ” our Lord Jesus Christ, 
in the Holy Spirit. 

III. The Holy Spirit inspires worship on the part of 
the believer. We read in Phil. iii. 3, R.V.) »\For 
we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of 
God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence 
in the flesh.”? Prayer is not worship ; thanksgiving is 
not worship. Worship is a definite act of the creature 
in relation to God. Worship is bowing before God in 


Praying, Returning Thanks 157 


adoring acknowledgment and contemplation of Himself 
and the perfection of His being. Some one has said, 
“In our prayers, we are taken up with our needs; in 
our thanksgiving we are taken up with our blessings ; 
in our worship, we are taken up with Himself.” 
There is no true and acceptable worship except that 
which the Holy Spirit prompts and directs. ‘* God is 
a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him 
in Spirit and truth ; for such doth the Father seek to be 
His worshippers” (John iv. 24, 23). The flesh seeks 
to intrude into every sphere of life. The flesh has its 
worship as well as its lusts. The worship which the 
flesh prompts is an abomination unto God. In this 
we see the folly of any attempt at a congress of religions 
where the representatives of radically different religions 
attempt to worship together. 

Not all earnest and honest worship is worship in the 
Spirit. A man may be very honest and very earnest 
in his worship and still not have submitted himself to 
the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the matter and so 
his worship is in the flesh. Oftentimes even when 
there is great loyalty to the letter of the Word, worship 
may not be “in the Spirit,” 7. ¢., inspired and directed 
by Him. To worship aright, as Paul puts it, we must 
have “no confidence in the flesh,’’ that is, we must 
recognize the utter inability of the flesh (our natural 
self as contrasted to the Divine Spirit that dwells in 
and should mould everything in the believer) to worship 
acceptably. And we must also realize the danger that 
there is that the flesh intrude itself into our worship. 
In utter self-distrust and self-abnegation we must cast 


158 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


ourselves upon the Holy Spirit to lead us aright in our 
worship. Just as we must renounce any merit in 
ourselves and cast ourselves upon Christ and His work 
for us upon the cross for justification, just so we must 
renounce any supposed capacity for good in ourselves 
and cast ourselves utterly upon the Holy Spirit and His 
work in us, in holy living, knowing, praying, thanking 
and worshipping and all else that we are to do. 


XVIII 


The Holy Spirit Sending Men Forth to Definite 
Lines of Work 


Y ), y E read in Acts xiii. 2-4, ‘¢ As they ministered 
to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, 
Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work 

whereunto I have called them. And when they had 
fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they 
sent them away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy 
Ghost, departed into Seleucia; and from thence they 
sailed to Cyprus.” It is evident from this passage that 
the Holy Spirit calls men into definite lines of work and 
sends them forth into the work. He not only calls men 
in a general way into Christian work, but selects the 
specific work and points it out. Many a one is asking 
to-day, and many another ought to ask, “ Shall I go to 
China, to Africa, to India?’? There is only one 
Person who can rightly settle that question for you and 
that Person is the Holy Spirit. You cannot settle the 
question for yourself, much less can any other man 
settle it rightly for you. Not every Christian man is 
called to go to China ; not every Christian man is called 
to go to Africa; not every Christian man is called to 
go to the foreign field at all. God alone knows whether 
He wishes you in any of these places, but He is willing 
to show you. Ina day such as we live in, when there 
is such a need of the right men and the right women 


159 


160 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


on the foreign field, every young and healthy and 
intellectually competent Christian man and woman 
should definitely offer themselves to God for the foreign 
field and ask Him if He wants them to go. But they 
ought not to go until He, by His Holy Spirit, makes it 
plain. 

The great need in all lines of Christian work to-day 
is men and women whom the Holy Ghost calls and 
sends forth, We have plenty of men and women 
whom men have called and sent forth. We have plenty 
of men and women who have called themselves, for 
there are many to-day who object strenuously to being 
sent forth by men, by any organization of any kind, 
but, in fact, are what is immeasurably worse, sent forth 
by themselves and not by God. 

How does the Holy Spirit call? The passage before 
us does not tell us how the Holy Spirit spoke to the 
group of prophets and teachers in Antioch, telling them 
to separate Barnabas and Saul to the work to which He 
had called them. It is presumably purposely silent on 
this point. Possibly it is silent on this point lest we 
should think that the Holy Spirit must always call in 
precisely the same way. ‘here is nothing whatever to 
indicate that He spoke by an audible voice, much less 
is there anything to indicate that He made His will 
known in any of the fantastic ways in which some in 
these days profess to discern His leading—as for ex- 
ample, by twitchings of the body, by shuddering, by 
opening of the Bible at random and putting his finger 
on a passage that may be construed into some entirely 
different meaning than that which the inspired author 


Definite Lines of Work 161 


intended by it. The important point is, He made 
His will clearly known, and He is willing to make His 
will clearly known to us to-day. Sometimes He makes 
it known in one way and sometimes in another, but 
He will make it known. 

But how shall we receive the Holy Spirit's call? First 
of all, by desiring it; second, by earnestly seeking it; 
third, by waiting upon the Lord for it; fourth, 
by expecting it. The record reads, ‘ As they minis- 
tered to the Lord, and fasted.’ ‘They were waiting upon 
the Lord for His direction. For the time being they 
had turned their back utterly upon worldly cares and 
enjoyments, even upon those things which were per- 
fectly proper in their place. Many a man is saying 
to-day in justification for his staying home from the 
foreign field, ‘‘I have never hada call.” But how 
do you know that? Have you been listening for a 
call? God usually speaks in a still small voice and it 
is only the listening ear that can catch it. Have you 
ever definitely offered yourself to God to send you 
where He will? While no man or woman ought to go 
to China or Africa or other foreign field unless they are 
clearly and definitely called, they ought each to offer 
themselves to God for this work and be ready for the 
call and be listening sharply that they may hear the call 
if it comes. Let it be borne distinctly in mind that a 
man needs no more definite call to Africa than to Bos- 
ton, or New York, or London, or any other desirable 
field at home. 

The Holy Spirit not only calls men and sends them 
forth into definite lines of work, but He also guides in 


162 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


the details of datly life and service as to where to go and 
where not to go, what to do and what not to do. We read 
in Acts viii. 27-29, R. V., ‘ And he (Philip) arose and 
went: and behold,a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great 
authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who 
was over all her treasure, who had come to Jerusalem for 
to worship ; and he was returning and sitting in his 
chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the 
Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this 
chariot.” Here we see the Spirit guiding Philip in the 
details of service into which He had called him. Ina 
similar way, we read in Acts xvi. 6, 7, R. V., “ And they 
went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having 
been forbidden of the Holy Ghost to speak the word in Asia ; 
and when they were come over against Mysia, they as- 
sayed to go into Bithynia; and the Spirit of Fesus suffered 
them not.” Here wesee the Holy Spirit directing Paul 
where not to go. It is possible for us to have the un- 
erring guidance of the Holy Spirit at every turn of life. 
Take, for example, our personal work. It is manifestly 
not God’s intention that we speak to every one we meet. 
To attempt to do so would be to attempt the impossible, 
and we would waste much time in trying to speak to 
people where we could do no good that might be used 
in speaking to people where we could accomplish some- 
thing. ‘There are some to whom it would be wise for 
us to speak. ‘There are others to whom it would be 
unwise for us to speak. Time spent on them would 
be taken from work that would be more to God’s 
glory. Doubtless as Philip journeyed towards Gaza, 
he met many before he met the one of whom the Spirit 


Definite Lines of Work 163 


said, ‘* Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.””. The 
Spirit is as ready to guide us as He was to guide 
Philip. Some years ago, a Christian worker in 
Toronto had the impression that he should go to 
the hospital and speak to some one there. He 
thought to himself, “* Whom do I know at the hos- 
pital at this time?’’ ‘There came to his mind one 
whom he knew was at the hospital, and he hurried to 
the hospital, but as he sat down by his side to talk with 
him, he realized it was not for this man that he was 
sent. He got up to lift a window. What did it all 
mean? ‘There was another man lying across the pas- 
sage from the man he knew and the thought came to 
him that this might be the man to whom he should 
speak. And he turned and spoke to this man and had 
the privilege of leading him to Christ. There was ap- 
parently nothing serious in the man’s case. He had 
suffered some injury to his knee and there was no 
thought of a serious issue, but that man passed into eter- 
nity that night. Many instances of a similar character 
could be recorded and prove from experience that the 
Holy Spirit is as ready to guide those who seek His 
guidance to-day as He was to guide the early disciples. 
But He is ready to guide us, not only in our more def- 
inite forms of Christian work but in all the affairs of 
life, business, study, everything we have todo. ‘There 
is no promise in the Bible more plainly explicit than 
James i. 5—7, R. V., “ But if any of you lack wisdom, 
let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and up- 
braideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him 
ask in faith, nothing doubting: for he that doubteth is 


164. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. 
For let not that man think that he shall receive any- 
thing of the Lord.”’ This passage not only promises 
God’s wisdom but tells us specifically just what to do 
to obtain it. ‘There are really five steps stated or im- 
plied in the passage : 

1. That we “lack wisdom.’ We must be con- 
scious of and fully admit our own inability to decide 
wisely. Here is where oftentimes we fail to receive 
God’s wisdom. We think we are able to decide for 
ourselves or at least we are not ready to admit our 
own utter inability to decide. “There must be an entire 
renunciation of the wisdom of the flesh. 

2. Wemust really desire to know God’s way and be will- 
ing at any cost to do God’s will, ‘This is implied inthe word 
‘* ask.” The asking must be sincere, and if we are not 
willing to do God’s will, whatever it may be, at any cost, 
the asking is not sincere. “This is apoint of fundamental 
importance. ‘There is nothing that goes so far to make 
our minds clear in the discernment of the will of God 
as revealed by His Spirit as an absolutely surrendered 
will. Here we find the reason why men oftentimes do 
not know God’s will and have the Spirit’s guidance. 
They are not willing to do whatever the Spirit leads at 
any cost. It is he that *¢ wé/leth to do His will” who 
shall know, not only of the doctrine, but he shall know 
his daily duty. Men oftentimes come to me and say, 
‘‘T cannot find out the will of God,” but when I put 
to them the question, ‘‘ Are you willing to do the 
will of God at any cost ? ” they admit that they are not. 
The way that is very obscure when we hold back from 


Definite Lines of Work 165 


an absolute surrender to God becomes as clear as day 
when we make that surrender. 

3. We must definitely “ask” guidance. It is not 
enough to desire; it is not enough to be willing to obey 5 
we must asf, definitely ask, God to show us the way. 

4. Wemust confidently expect guidance. ‘ Let him ask 
in faith nothing doubting.’ ‘There are many and many 
who cannot find the way, though they ask God to show 
it to them, simply because they have not the absolutely 
undoubting expectation that God will show them the 
way. God promises to show it if we expect it con- 
fidently. When you come to God in prayer to show 
you what to do, know for a certainty that He will show 
you. In what way He will show you, He does not 
tell, but He promises that He will show you and that is 
enough. 

5. We must follow step by step as the guidance comes. 
As said before, just how it will come, no one can tell, 
but it will come. Oftentimes only a step will be made 
clear at atime; that is all we need to know—the next 
step. Many are in darkness because they do not know 
and cannot find what God would have them do next 
week, or next month or next year. A college man 
once came to me and-told me that he was in great 
darkness about God’s guidance, that he had been seek- 
ing to find the will of God and learn what his life’s work 
should be, but he could not find it. I asked him how 
far along he was in his college course. He said his 
sophomore year. I asked, ‘‘ What is it you desire to 
know?” ‘*What I shall do when I finish college.” 
“ Do you know that you ought to go through college ? ” 


166 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


“Yes.” This man not only knew what he ought to 
do next year but the year after but still he was in great 
perplexity because he did not know what he ought to 
do when these two years were ended. God delights to 
lead His children a step at atime. He leads us as He 
led the children of Israel. ‘* And when the cloud was 
taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the chil- 
dren of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the 
cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their 
tents. At the commandment of the Lorp the children 
of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the 
Lorp they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon 
the tabernacle they rested in their tents. And when 
the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, 
then the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lorn, 
and journeyed not. And so it was, when the cloud was 
a few days upon the tabernacle ; according to the com- 
mandment of the Lorp they journeyed. And so it 
was, when the cloud abode from even unto the morn- 
ing, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning 
then they journeyed : whether it was by day or by night 
that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed. Or 
whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that 
the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, 
the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed 
not: but when it was taken up, they journeyed. At 
the commandment of the Lorn they rested in the tents, 
and at the commandment of the Lorp they journeyed: 
they kept the charge of the Lorn, at the commandment 
of the Lorp by the hand of Moses ” (Num. ix. 17-23). 

Many who have given themselves up to the leading 


Definite Lines of Work 167 


of the Holy Spirit get into a place of great bondage and 
are tortured because they have leadings which they fear 
may be from God but of which they are not sure. If 
they do not obey these leadings, they are fearful they 
have disobeyed God and sometimes fancy that they 
have grieved away the Holy Spirit, because they did not 
follow His leading. This is all unnecessary. Let us 
settle it in our minds that God’s guidance is clear guid- 
ance. ‘God is light, and in Him is no darkness at 
all’? (x Johni. 5). And any leading that is not per- 
fectly clear is not from Him. That is, if our wills are 
absolutely surrendered to Him. Of course, the 
obscurity may arise from an unsurrendered will. But 
if our wills are absolutely surrendered to God, we have 
the right as God’s children to be sure that any guidance 
is from Him before we obey it. We have a right to go 
to our Father and say, ‘‘ Heavenly Father, here I am. 
I desire above all things to do Thy will. Now make 
it clear to me, Thy child. If this thing that I have a 
leading to do is Thy will, I will do it, but make it clear 
as day if it be Thy will.” If it is His will, the 
heavenly Father will make it as clear as day. And 
you need not, and ought not to do that thing until He 
does make it clear, and you need not and ought not to 
condemn yourself because you did not doit. God does 
not want His children to be in a state of condemnation 
before Him. He wishes us to be free from all care, 
worry, anxiety and self-condemnation. Any earthly 
parent would make the way clear to his child that asked 
to know it and much more will our heavenly Father 
make it clear to us, and until He does make it clear, 


168 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


we need have no fears that in not doing it, we are dis- 
obeying God. We have no right to dictate to God 
how He shall give His guidance—as, for example, by 
asking Him to shut up every way, or by asking Him to 
give a sign, or by guiding us in putting our finger on a 
text, or in any other way. It is ours to seek and to ex- 
pect wisdom but it is not ours to dictate how it shall be 
given. The Holy Spirit divides to ‘each man 
severally as He will”? (1 Cor. xii. 11). 

‘Two things are evident from what has been said 
about the work of the Holy Spirit. First, how utterly 
dependent we are upon the work of the Holy Spirit at 
every turn of Christian life and service. Second, how 
perfect is the provision for life and service that God 
has made. How wonderful is the fullness of privilege 
that is open to the humblest believer through the Holy 
Spirit’s work. It is not so much what we are by nature, 
either intellectually, morally, physically, or even spirit- 
ually, that is important. ‘The important matter is, what 
the Holy Spirit can do for us and what we will let Him 
do. Not infrequently, the Holy Spirit takes the one 
who seems to give the least natural promise and uses 
him far beyond those who give the greatest natural 
promise. Christian life is not to be lived in the realm 
of natural temperament, and Christian work is not to 
be done in the power of natural endowment, but Chris- 
tian life is to be lived in the realm of the Spirit, and 
Christian work is to be done on the power of the Spirit. 
The Holy Spirit is willing and eagerly desirous of 
doing for each one of us His whole work, and He wiil 
do in each one of us all that we will let Him do. 


XIX 
The Holy Spirit and the Believers Body 


HE Holy Spirit does a work for our bodies as 

well as for our minds and hearts. We read 

uD nw Vile Tea a eee the Spirit of 

Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, 

He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall 

quicken also your mortal bodies through His Spirit that 
dwelleth in you.” 

The Holy Spirit quickens the mortal body of the believer. 
It is very evident from the context that this refers to 
the future resurrection of the body (vs. 21-23). ‘The 
resurrection of the body is the Holy Spirit’s work. 
The glorified body is from Him; it is “ a spiritual body.” 
At the present time, we have only the first fruits of the 
Spirit and are waiting for the full harvest, the redemp- 
tion of our body (v. 23): 

There is, however, a sense in which the Holy Spirit 
even now quickens our bodies. Jesus tells us in Matt. 
xij. 28 that He cast out devils by the Spirit of God. 
And we read in Acts x. 38, “ How God anointed Jesus 
of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who 
went about doing good and healing all that were op- 
pressed of the devil2? In James v. 14, the Apostle 
writes, “Is any sick among you? Let him call for 
the elders of the church; and let them pray over 
him, anointing him with oil in the name of the 

169 


170 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


Lord.”” The oil in this passage (as elsewhere) is 
the type of the Holy Spirit, and the truth is set 
forth that the healing is the Holy Spirit’s work. God 
by His Holy Spirit does impart new health and vigour 
to these mortal bodies in the present life. To go to 
the extremes that many do and take the ground that 
the believer who is walking in fellowship with Christ 
need never be ill is to go farther than the Bible war- 
rants us in going. It is true that the redemption of 
our bodies is secured by the atoning work of Christ 
but until the Lord comes, we only enjoy the first fruits 
of that redemption; and we are waiting and some- 
times groaning for our full place as sons manifested in 
the redemption of our body (Rom. viii. 23). But 
while this is true, it is the clear teaching of Scripture 
and a matter of personal experience on the part of 
thousands that the life of the Holy Spirit does sweep 
through these bodies of ours in moments of weakness 
and of pain and sickness, imparting new health to 
them, delivering from pain and filling them with 
abounding life. It is our privilege to know the quick- 
ening touch of the Holy Spirit in these bodies as well 
as in our minds and affections and will. It would be 
a great day for the Church and for the glory of Jesus 
Christ, if Christians would renounce forever all the 
devil’s counterfeits of the Holy Spirit’s work, Christian 
Science, Mental Healing, Emmanuelism, Hypnotism 
and the various other forms of occultism and depend 
upon God by the power of His Holy Spirit to work 
that in these bodies of ours which He in His unerring 
wisdom sees that we most need. 


xX 
The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 


NE of the most deeply significant phrases used 
() ‘n connection with the Holy Spirit in the 

Scriptures is ‘¢ baptized with the Holy 
Ghost.” John the Baptist was the first to use this 
phrase. In speaking of himself and the coming One 
he said, “I indeed baptize you with water unto re- 
pentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than 
I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall bap- 
tize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire” (Matt. 
iii, 11). The second “ with ” in this passage is in 
‘talics. It is not found in the Greek. ‘There are not 
two different baptisms spoken of, the one with the 
Holy Ghost and one with fire, but one baptism with 
the Holy Wind and Fire. Jesus afterwards used the 
same expression. In Acts i. 5, He says, “* For John 
truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized 
with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” When 
this promise of John the Baptist and of our Lord was 
fulfilled in Acts ii. 3, 4, R. V., we read, “* And there 
appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of 
fire; and it sat upon each one of them. And they 
were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” Here we have 
another expression “ filled with the Holy Spirit’? used 
synonymously with ‘baptized with the Holy Spirit.” 

171 


172 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


We read again in Acts x. 44-46, “ While Peter yet 
spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which 
heard the word. And they of the circumcision which 
believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, 
because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift 
of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with 
tongues, and magnify God.”’ Peter himself afterwards 
describing this experience in Jerusalem tells the story 
in this way, “ And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost 
Sell on them, as on us at the beginning. Then remem- 
bered I the word of the Lord, how that He said, John 
indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized 
with the Holy Ghost. Forasmuch then as God ave 
them the like gift as He did unto us who believed on the 
Lord Jesus Christ ; what was I, that I could withstand 
God?” (Acts xi. 15-17). Here Peter distinctly calls 
the experience which came to Cornelius and his house- 
hold, being baptized with the Holy Ghost, so we see 
that the expression “ the Holy Ghost fell” and “ the 
gift of the Holy Ghost” are practically synonymous 
expressions with “baptized with the Holy Ghost.” 
Still other expressions are used to describe this bless- 
ing, such as “receive the Holy Ghost ” (Acts ii. 38; 
x1x. 2-6); “the Holy Ghost came on them ” (Acts 
xix. 2-6); “gift of the Holy Ghost” (Heb. ii. 4; 
Ti MOY, Wit do OE 13); “I send the promise of My 
Father upon you; ” and “endued with power from on 
high” (Luke xxiv. 49). 

What is the baptism with the Holy Spirit ? 

In the first place the baptism with the Holy Spirit is a 
definite experience of which one may and ought to know 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 173 


whether he has received it or not. “This is evident from 
our Lord’s command to His disciples in Luke xxiv. 49 
and in Acts i. 4, that they should not depart from Jerusa- 
lem to undertake the work which He had commis- 
sioned them to do until they had received this promise 
of the Father. It is also evident from the eighth chap- 
ter of Acts, fifteenth and sixteenth verses, where we 
are distinctly told, “ the Holy Spirit had not as yet fallen 
upon any of them.’ It is evident also from the nine- 
teenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, the second 
verse, R. V., where Paul put to the little group of dis- 
ciples at Ephesus the definite question, “ Did ye re- 
ceive the Holy Ghost when ye believed?” It is evi- 
dent that the receiving of the Holy Ghost was an ex- 
perience so definite that one could answer yes or no to 
the question whether they had received the Holy Spirit. 
In this case the disciples definitely answered, ‘¢ No,” 
that they did not so much as hear whether the Holy 
Ghost was given. They did not say what our Author- 
ized Version makes them say, that they did not so 
much as hear whether there was any Holy Ghost. 
They knew that there was a Holy Ghost ; they knew 
furthermore that there was a definite promise of the 
baptism with the Holy Ghost, but they had not heard 
that that promise had been as yet fulfilled. Paul told 
them that it had and took steps whereby they were 
definitely baptized with the Holy Spirit before that meet- 
ing closed. It is equally evident from Gal. iii. 2 that 
the baptism with the Holy Spirit is a definite experience 
of which one may know whether he has received it or 
not. In this passage Paul says to the believers in 


174. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


Galatia, “This only would I learn of you, Received 
ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing 
of faith?’ ‘Their receiving the Spirit had been so 
definite as a matter of personal consciousness, that Paul 
could appeal to it as a ground for his argument. In 
our day there is much talk about the baptism with the 
Holy Spirit and prayer for the baptism with the Spirit 
that is altogether vague and indefinite. Men arise in 
meeting and pray that they may be baptized with the 
Holy Spirit, and if you should go afterwards to the one 
who offered the prayer and put to him the question, 
‘“‘Did you receive what you asked? Were you bap- 
tized with the Holy Spirit?” it is quite likely that he 
would hesitate and falter and say, ‘I hope so”; but 
there is none of this indefiniteness in the Bible. The 
Bible is clear as day on this, as on every other point. 
It sets forth an experience so definite and so real, that 
one may know whether or not he has received the bap- 
tism with the Holy Spirit, and can answer yes or no to 
the question, “ Have you received the Holy Ghost?” 
In the second place it is evident that the baptism with 
the Holy Spirit is an operation of the Holy Spirit distinct from 
and additional to His regenerating work. This is evident 
from Acts i. 5, ‘“‘ For John truly baptized with water; 
but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days 
hence.” It is clear then that the disciples had not as yet 
been baptized with the Holy Ghost, that they were to be 
thus baptized not many days hence. But the men to 
whom Jesus spoke these words were already regenerate 
men. ‘They had been so pronounced by our Lord Him- 
self. He had saidto them in John xv. 3, “* Now yeare 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 175 


clean through the word which I have spoken unto 
you.” But what does clean through the word mean? 
1 Peter i. 23 answers the question, ‘* Being born 
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, dy 
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” A 
little earlier on the same night Jesus had said to them 
in John xiii. 10, R. V., “ He that is bathed needeth 
not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye 
are clean but not all.’ The Lord Jesus had pronounced 
that apostolic company clean—z.e., regenerate men— 
with the exception of the one who never was a regenerate 
man, Judas Iscariot who should betray Him (see 
verse 11). The remaining eleven Jesus Christ had pro- 
nounced regenerate men. Yet He tells these same 
men in Acts i. 5, that the baptism with the Holy Spirit 
was an experience that they had not as yet realized, 
that still lay in the future. So it is evident that it is 
one thing to be born again by the Holy Spirit through 
the Word and something distinct from this and 
additional to it to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. 
The same thing is evident from Acts viii. 12, R. V., 
compared with the fifteenth and sixteenth verses of the 
same chapter. In the twelfth verse we read that a 
large company of disciples had believed the preaching 
of Philip concerning the kingdom of God and the name 
of Fesus Christ, and “had been baptized into the name 
of the Lord Jesus” (v. 16, R. V.). Certainly in 
this company of baptized believers there were at least 
some regenerate persons. Whatever the true form of 
water baptism may be, they undoubtedly had been 
baptized by the true form, for the baptizing had been 


176 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


done by a Spirit-commissioned man, but in the fifteenth 
and sixteenth verses we read, “When they (that is 
Peter and John) were come down, they prayed for 
them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: for as 
yet He was fallen upon none of them: only they had 
been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.” 
Baptized believers they were ; baptized into the name 
of the Lord Jesus they had been; regenerate men some 
of them most assuredly were, and yet not one of them 
as yet had received, or been baptized with, the Holy 
Ghost. So again, it is evident that the baptism with 
the Holy Spirit is an operation of the Holy Spirit 
distinct from and additional to His regenerating work. 
A man may be regenerated by the Holy Spirit and still 
not be baptized with the Holy Spirit. In regeneration, 
there is the impartation of life by the Spirit’s power, ~ 
and the one who receives it is saved: in the baptism 
with the Holy Spirit, there is the impartation of power, 
and the one who receives it is fitted for service. The 
baptism with the Holy Spirit, however, may take place 
at the moment of regeneration. It did, for example, 
in the household of Cornelius. We read in Acts x. 
43, that while Peter was preaching, he came to the 
point where he said concerning Jesus, ‘¢ To Him bear 
all the prophets witness, that through His name whoso- 
ever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins,” 
and at that point Cornelius and his household believed 
and we read immediately, ‘* While Peter yet spake these 
words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard 
the word. And they of the circumcision which believed 
were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 177 


that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the 
Holy Ghost.”” ‘The moment they believed the testi- 
mony about Jesus, they were baptized with the Holy 
Ghost, even before they were baptized with water. 
Regeneration and the baptism with the Holy Spirit took 
place practically at the same moment, and so they do 
in many an experience to-day. It would seem as if in 
a normal condition of the church, this would be the 
usual experience. But the church is not ina normal 
condition to-day. A very large part of the church 
is in the place where the believers in Samaria were 
before Peter and John came down, and where the 
disciples in Ephesus were before Paul came and told 
them of their larger privilege—baptized believers, 
baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus, baptized 
unto repentance and remission of sins, but not as 
yet baptized with the Holy Ghost. Nevertheless 
the baptism with the Holy Spirit is the birthright of 
every believer. It was purchased for us by the 
atoning death of Christ, and when He ascended to 
the right hand of the Father, He received the promise 
of the Father and shed Him forth upon the church, and 
if any one to-day has not the baptism with the Holy 
Spirit as a personal experience, it is because he has not 
claimed his birthright. Potentially, every member of 
the body of Christ is baptized with the Holy Spirit 
(1 Cor. xii. 13), “ For in one Spirit, we were all baptized 
into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether 
we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink 
into one Spirit.” But there are many believers with 
whom that which is potentially theirs has not become 


_—) 


178 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


a matter of real, actual, personal experience. All men 
are potentially justified in the atoning death of Jesus 
Christ on the cross, that is justification is provided for 
them and belongs to them (Rom. v. 18, R. V.), but 
what potentially belongs to every man, each man must 
appropriate to himself by faith in Christ ; then justifica- 
tion is actually and experimentally his and just so, 
while the baptism with the Holy Spirit is potentially the 
possession of every believer, each individual believer 
must appropriate it for himself before it is experimentally 
his. We may go still further than this and say that it is 


only by the baptism with the Holy Spirit that one 


becomes in the fullest sense a member of the body of 
Christ, because it is only by the baptism with the 
Spirit that he receives power to perform those functions 
for which God has appointed him as a part of the body. 

As we have already seen every true believer has the 
Holy Spirit (Rom. viii. g), but not every believer has 
the baptism with the Holy Spirit (though every believer 
may have as we have just seen). It is one thing to 
have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, perhaps 
dwelling within us way back in some hidden sanctuary 
of our being, back of definite consciousness, and 
something far different, something vastly more, to 
have the Holy | Spirit taking complete possession of 
the one whom “He inhabits. There are those who 
press the fact that every believer potentially has the 
baptism with the Spirit, to such an extent that they 
clearly teach that every believer has the baptism with 
the Spirit as an actual experience. But unless the 
baptism with the Spirit to-day is something radically 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 179 


different from what the baptism with the Spirit was in 
the early church, indeed unless it is something not at 
all real, then either a very large proportion of those 
whom we ordinarily consider believers are not believers, 
or else one may be a believer and a regenerate man 
without having been baptized with the Holy Spirit. 
Certainly, this was the case in the early church. It 
was the case with the Apostles before Pentecost ; it was 
the case with the church in Ephesus; it was the case 
with the church in Samaria. And there are thousands 
to-day who can testify to having received Christ and 
been born again, and then afterwards, sometimes long 
afterwards, having been baptized with the Holy Ghost 
as a definite experience. This is a matter of great 
practical importance, for there are many who are not 
enjoying the fullness of privilege that they might enjoy 
because by pushing individual verses in the Scriptures 
beyond what they will bear and against the plain 
teaching of the Scriptures as a whole, they are trying 
to persuade themselves that they have already been 
baptized with the Holy Spirit when they have not. 
And if they would only admit to themselves that they 
had not, they could then take the steps whereby they 
would be baptized with the Holy Spirit as a matter 
of definite, personal experience. 

The next thing which is clear from the teaching of 
Scripture is that the baptism with the Holy Spirit 1s always 
connected with, and primarily for the purpose of testimony 
and service. 

Our Lord in speaking of this baptism which they 
were so soon to receive in Luke xxiv. 49 said, ‘* And 


180 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


behold I send the promise of My Father upon you: 
but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be 
endued with power from on high.’ And again He said 
in Acts i. 5, 8, “‘ For John truly baptized with water ; 
but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not 
many days hence. . -. . But ye shall recerve power 
after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye 
shall be witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem, and in all 
Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of 
the earth.” In the record of the fulfillment of this 
promise of our Lord in Acts ii. 4, we read, “ And they 
were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak 
with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” 
Then follows the detailed account of what Peter said 
and of the result. The result was that Peter and the 
other Apostles spoke with such power that three thou- 
sand persons that day were convicted of sin, renounced 
their sin and confessed their acceptance of Jesus Christ 
in baptism and continued steadfastly in the Apostles’ 
doctrine and fellowship and in the breaking of bread 
and in prayers ever afterwards. In the fourth chapter 
of Acts, the thirty-first to the thirty-third verses, we 
read that when the Apostles on another occasion were 
filled with the Holy Spirit, the result was that they 
“spake the word of God with boldness” and that “ with 
great power gave the Apostles their witness to the resur- 
rection of the Lord “fesus.’ And in the ninth chapter 
of the Acts of the Apostles, we have a description of 
-Paul’s being baptized with the Holy Spirit. We read 
in the seventeenth to the twentieth verses, ‘* And 
Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 181 


and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the 
Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way 
as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest re- 
ceive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And 
immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been 
scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, 
and was baptized. And when he had received meat, 
he was strengthened. . . . And straightway, be 
preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son 
of God,” and in the twenty-second verse we read that 
he ** confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, 
proving that this is the Christ” (R. V.). In 1 Cor. xii. 
we have the fullest discussion of the baptism with the 
Holy Spirit found in any passage in the Bible. ‘This 
is the classical passage on the whole subject. And the 
results there recorded are gifts for service. The 
baptism with the Holy Spirit is not primarily intended 
to make believers happy, but to make them useful. It 
is not intended merely for the ecstasy of the individual 
believer, it is intended primarily for his efficiency in 
service. I do not say that the baptism with the Holy 
Spirit will not make the believer happy ; for as part of 
the fruit of the Spirit is ‘‘ joy,”’ if one is baptized with the 
Holy Spirit, joy must inevitably result. I have never 
known one to be baptized with the Holy Spirit into 
whose life there did not come, sooner or later, a new 
joy, a higher and purer and fuller joy than he had ever 
known before. But this is not the prime purpose of 
the baptism nor the most important and prominent re- 
sult. Great emphasis needs to be laid upon this point, 
for there are many Christians who in seeking the 


182 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


baptism with the Spirit are seeking personal ecstasy and 
rapture. ‘Chey go to conventions and conferences for 
the deepening of the Christian life and come back and 
tell what a wonderful blessing they have received, refer- 
ring to some new ecstasy that has come into their heart, 
but when you watch them, it is difficult to see that they 
are any more useful to their pastors or their churches 
than they were before, and one is compelled to think 
that whatever they have received, they have not re- 
ceived the real baptism with the Holy Spirit. Ecstasies 
and raptures are all right in their places. When they 
come, thank God for them—the writer knows some- 
thing about them—but in a world such as we live in 
to-day where sin and self-righteousness and unbelief 
are so triumphant, where there is such an awful tide of 
men, women and young people sweeping on towards 
eternal perdition, I would rather go through my whole 
life and never have one touch of ecstasy but have power 
to witness for Christ and win others for Christ and 
thus to save them, than to have raptures 365 days in 
the year but no power to stem the awful tide of sin 
and bring men, women and children to a saving 
knowledge of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. 

The purpose of the baptism with the Holy Spirit is 
not primarily to make believers individually holy. I do 
not say that it is not the work of the Holy Spirit to 
make believers holy, for as we have already seen, He 
is “the Spirit of Holiness,” 
ever attain unto holiness is by His power. I do not 
even say that the baptism with the Holy Spirit will not 
result in a great spiritual transformation and uplift and 


and the only way we shall 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 183 


cleansing, for the promise is, “ He shall baptize you 
with the Holy Spirit and fire” (and the thought of fire 
as used in this connection is the thought of searching, 
refining, cleansing, consuming). A wonderful trans- 
formation took place in the Apostles at Pentecost, and 
a wonderful transformation has taken place in thousands 
who have been baptized with the Holy Spirit since 
Pentecost, but the primary purpose of the baptism with 
the Holy Spirit is efficiency in testimony and service. 
It has to do rather with gifts for service than with 
graces of character. It is the impartation of spiritual 
power or gifts in service and sometimes one may have 
rare gifts by the Spirit’s power and yet manifest few of 
the graces of the Spirit. (See £1 Cor. xiii. 1-3; 
Matt. vii. 22, 23.) In every passage in the Bible in 
which the baptism with the Holy Spirit is mentioned, 
it is connected with testimony or service. 

We shall perhaps get a clearer idea of just what the 
baptism with the Holy Spirit is, if we stop to consider 
what are the results of the baptism with the Holy 
Spirit. 

WHAT ARE THE RESULTS OF THE BAPTISM WITH THE 
Hoty Spirit! 

1. The specific manifestations of the baptism with the 
Holy Spirit are not precisely the same in all persons. ‘This 
appears very clearly from 1 Cor. xii. 4-13, “ Now 
there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And 
there are differences of administrations, but the same 
Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is 
the same God which worketh all in all. But the mani- 
festation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit 


184. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of 
wisdom ; to another the word of knowledge by the same 
Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another 
the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the 
working of miracles; to another prophecy ; to another 
discerning of spirits ; to another divers kind of tongues ; 
to another the interpretation of tongues: but all these 
worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to 
every man severally as He will. For as the body is 
one, and hath many members, and all the members of 
that one body, being many, are one body: so also is 
Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one 
body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be 
bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one 
Spirit.” Here we see one baptism but a great variety 
of manifestations of the power of that baptism. There 
are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. The gifts 
vary with the different lines of service to which God 
calls different persons. The church is a body, and dif- 
ferent members of the body have different functions 
and the Spirit imparts to the one who is baptized with 
the Spirit those gifts which fit him for the service to 
which God has called him. It is very important to 
bear this in mind. Through the failure to see this, 
many have gone entirely astray on the whole subject. 
In my early study of the subject, I noticed the fact that 
in many instances those who were baptized with the 
Holy Spirit spake with tongues (e. g., Acts ii. 43; x. 46; 
xix. 6) and I wondered if every one who was baptized 
with the Holy Spirit would not speak with tongues. I 
did not know of any one who was speaking with 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 185 


tongues to-day and so I wondered still further whether 
the baptism with the Holy Spirit were for the present 
age. But one day I was studying 1 Cor. xii. and 
noticed how Paul said to the believers in that wonder- 
fully gifted church in Corinth, all of whom had been 
pronounced in the thirteenth verse to be baptized with 
the Spirit, “ And God hath set some in the church, 
first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, 
after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, govern- 
ments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? Are 
all prophets? Are all teachers? are all workers of 
miracles? Have all the gift of healing? Do all speak 
with tongues? Do all interpret?’’ So I saw it was 
clearly taught in the Scriptures that one might be 
baptized with the Holy Spirit and still not have the gift 
of tongues. I saw furthermore that the gift of tongues, 
according to the Scripture, was the last and the least 
important of all the gifts, and that we were urged to 
desire earnestly the greater gifts (1 Cor. xill. 31; 
PUROD UV kh LALA hoy 1)! 275) 20) Aittelater 
was tempted to fall into another error, more specious 
but in reality just as unscriptural as this, namely, that if 
one were baptized with the Holy Spirit, he would re- 
ceive the gift of an evangelist. I had read the story of 
D. L. Moody, of Charles G. Finney and of others 
who were baptized with the Holy Spirit, and of the 
power that came to them as evangelists, and the 
thought was suggested that if any one is baptized with 
the Holy Spirit will not he also obtain power as an 
evangelist? But this was also unscriptural. If God 
has called a man to be an evangelist and he is baptized 


186 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


with the Holy Spirit, he will receive power as an 
evangelist, but if God has called him to be something 
else, he will receive power to become something else. 
Three great evils come from the error of thinking that 
every one who is _ baptized with the Holy Spirit will re- 
ceive power as an evangelist. 

(1) The evil of disappointment. There are many 
who seek the baptism with the Holy Spirit expecting 
power as an evangelist, but God has not called them 
to that work, and though they really meet the condi- 
tions of receiving the baptism with the Spirit, and do 
receive the baptism with the Spirit, power as an 
evangelist does not come. In many cases this results 
in bitter disappointment and sometimes even in despair. 
The one who has expected the power of an evangelist 
and has not received it sometimes even questions whether 
he is a child of God. But if he had properly under- 
stood the matter, he would have known that the fact 
that he had not received power as an evangelist is no 
proof that he has not received the baptism with the 
Spirit, and much less is it a proof that he is not a child 
of God. 

(2) The second evil is graver still, namely, the evil 
of presumption. A man whom God has not called to 
the work of an evangelist or a minister oftentimes 
rushes into it because he has received, or imagines he 
has received, the baptism with the Holy Spirit. He 
thinks all a man needs to become a preacher is the bap- 
tism with the Holy Spirit. This is not true. In order 
to succeed as a minister a man needs a call to that 
specific work, and furthermore, he needs that knowl- 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 187 


edge of God’s Word that will prepare him for the 
work. If aman is called to the ministry and studies the 
Word until he has something to preach, if then he is 
baptized with the Holy Spirit, he will have success as a 
preacher, but if he is not called to that work, or if he 
has not the knowledge of the Word of God that is 
necessary, he will not succeed in the work, even 
though he receives the baptism with the Holy Spirit. 
(3) The third evil is greater still, namely, the evil 
of indifference. There are many who know that they 
are not called to the work of preaching. If then they 
think that the baptism with the Holy Spirit simply im- 
parts power as an evangelist, or power to preach, the 
matter of the baptism with the Holy Spirit is one of no 
personal concern to them. For example, here is a 
mother with a large family of children. She knows 
perfectly well, or at least it is hoped that she knows, 
that she is not called to do the work of an evan- 
gelist. She knows that her duty lies with her children 
and her home. If she reads or hears about the 
baptism with the Holy Spirit, and gets the impression 
that the baptism with the Holy Spirit simply imparts 
power to do the work of an evangelist, or to 
preach, she will think “The evangelist needs this 
blessing, my minister needs this blessing, but it 
is not for me”; but if she understands the matter as 
it is taught in the Bible, that while the baptism with 
the Spirit imparts power, the way in which the power 
will be manifested depends entirely upon the line of 
work to which God calls us, and that no efficient work 
can be done without it, and sees still further that there 


188 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


is no function in the church of Jesus Christ to-day 
more holy and sacred than that of sanctified mother- 
hood, she will say, “The evangelist may need this 
baptism, my minister may need this baptism; but I 
must have it to bring up my children in the nurture 
and admonition of the Lord.” 

2. While there are diversities of gifts and manifesta- 
tions of the baptism with the Holy Spirit, there will be some 
gift to every one thus baptized. We read in 1 Cor. 
xii. 7, R. V., “But to each one is given the manifesta- 
tion of the Spirit to profit withal.” Every most in- 
significant member of the body of Christ has some 
function to perform in that body. The body grows 
by that ‘which every joint supplieth” (Eph. iv. 16), 
and to each least significant joint, the Holy Spirit im- 
parts power to perform the function that belongs to 
him. 

3. ft ts the Holy Spirit who decides how the baptism 
with the Spirit shall manifest itself in any given case. As 
we read in 1 Cor. xii. 11, ‘¢ But all these worketh the 
one and the selfsame Spirit dividing to each one 
severally, even as He will’ The Holy Spirit is ab- 
solutely sovereign in deciding how, that is, in what 
special gift, operation, or power, the baptism with the 
Holy Spirit shall manifest itself. It is not for us to 
pick out some field of service and then ask the Holy 
Spirit to qualify us for that service. It is not for us to 
select some gift and then ask the Holy Spirit to impart 
to us this self-chosen gift. It is for us to simply put 
ourselves entirely at the disposal of the Holy Spirit to 
send us where He will, to select for us what kind of 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 189 


service He will and to impart to us what gift He will. 
He is absolute sovereign and our position is that of 
unconditional surrender to Him. I am glad that this 
is so. I rejoice that He, in His infinite wisdom and 
love, is to select the field of service and the gifts, and 
that this is not to be left to me in my short-sightedness 
and folly. It is because of the failure to recognize this 
absolute sovereignty of the Spirit that many fail of the 
blessing and meet with disappointment. ‘They are 
trying to select their own gift and soget none. J once 
knew an earnest child of God in Scotland, who hear- 
ing of the baptism with the Holy Spirit and the power 
that resulted from it, gave up at a great sacrifice his 
work as a ship plater, for which he was receiving large 
wages. He heard that there was a great need of min- 
isters in the northwest in America. He came to the 
northwest. He met the conditions of the baptism with 
the Holy Spirit and I believe was really baptized with 
the Holy Spirit, but God had not chosen him for the 
work of an evangelist, and the power as an evangelist 
did not come to him. No field seemed to open, and he 
was in great despondency. He even questioned his 
acceptance before God. One morning he came into 
our church in Minneapolis and heard me speak upon 
the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and as I pointed out 
that the baptism with the Holy Spirit manifested itself 
in many different ways, and the fact that one had not 
power as an evangelist was no proof that he had not 
received the baptism with the Holy Spirit, light came 
into his heart. He put himself unreservedly into God’s 
hands for Him to choose the field of labour and the 


190 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


gifts. An opening soon came to him as a Sunday- 
school missionary, and then, when he had given up 
choosing for himself and left it with the Holy Spirit to 
divide to him as He would, a strange thing happened ; 
he did receive power as an evangelist and went through 
the country districts in one of our northwestern states 
with mighty power as an evangelist. 

4. While the power may be of one kind in one person 
and of another kind in another person, there will always 
be power, the very power of God, when one is baptized 
with the Holy Spirit. We read in Acts i. 5, 8, For 
John truly baptized with water ; but ye shall be baptized 
with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. 

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghee 
is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me 
both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, 
and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” As truly 
as any one who reads these pages, who has not already 
received the baptism with the Holy Spirit, seeks it in 
God’s way, he will obtain it, and there will come into 
his service a power that was never there before, power 
for the very work to which God has called him. This 
is not only the teaching of Scripture; it is the teaching 
of religious experience throughout the centuries. Re- 
ligious biographies abound in instances of men who 
have worked along as best they could, until one day they 
were led to see that there was such an experience as 
the baptism with the Holy Spirit and to seek it and ob- 
tain it and, from that hour, there came into their service 
a new power that utterly transformed its character. 
In this matter, one thinks first of such men as Finney, 


The Baptism With the Holy Spint 191 


and Moody, and Brainerd, but cases of this character 
are not confined to the few exceptional men. ‘They 
are common. ‘The writer has personally met and 
corresponded with hundreds and thousands of persons 
around the globe, who could testify definitely to the 
new power that God has granted them through the 
baptism with the Holy Spirit. These thousands of 
men and women were in all branches of Christian 
service; some of them are ministers of the Gospel, 
some evangelists, some mission workers, some 
Y. M. C. A. secretaries, Sunday-school teachers, 
fathers, mothers, personal workers. Nothing could 
possibly exceed the clearness and the confidence and 
the joyfulness of many of these testimonies. 

I shall not soon forget a minister whom I] met some 
years ago at a State Convention of the Young People’s 
Society of Christian Endeavour at New Britain, Conn. 
I was speaking upon the subject of personal work and 
as | drew the address to a close, [ said that in order to 
do effective personal work, we must be baptized with 
the Holy Spirit, and in a very few sentences explained 
what I meant by that. At the close of the address, this 
minister came to me on the platform and said, ‘I 
have not this blessing you have been speaking about, 
but I want it. Will you pray forme?” Isaid, “¢‘ Why 
not pray right now?” He said, “I will.” We put 
two chairs side by side and turned our backs upon the 
crowd as they passed out of the Armoury. He prayed 
and I prayed that he might be baptized with the Holy 
Spirit. Then we separated. Some weeks after, one 
who had witnessed the scene came to me at a conven- 


192 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


tion in Washington and told me how this minister had 
gone back to his church a transformed man, that now 
his congregations filled the church, that it was largely 
composed of young men, and that there were conver- 
sions at every service. Some years after, this minister 
was called to another field of service. His most 
spiritually-minded friends advised him not to go, as all 
the ruling elements in the church to which he had been 
called were against aggressive evangelistic work, but 
for some reason or other, he felt it was the call of God 
and accepted it. In six months, there were sixty-nine 
conversions, and thirty-eight of them were business 
men of the town. 

After attending in Montreal some years ago an Inter- 
provincial Convention of the Young Men’s Christian 
Association of the Provinces of Canada, I received a 
letter from a young man. He wrote, “I was present 
at your last meeting in Montreal. I heard you speak 
upon the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. I went to my 
rooms and sought that baptism for myself and received 
it. I am chairman of the Lookout Committee of the 
Christian Endeavour Society of our church. JI called 
together the other members of the committee. I found 
that two of them had been at the meeting and had al- 
ready been baptized with the Holy Spirit. “Then we 
prayed for the other members of the committee and 
they were baptized with the Holy Spirit. Now we are 
going out into the church and the young people of the 
church are being brought to Christ right along.” 

A lady and gentleman once came to me at a conven- 
tion and told me how, though they had never seen me 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 193 


before, they had read the report of an address on the 
Baptism with the Holy Spirit delivered in Boston at 
a Christian Workers’ Convention and that they had 
sought this baptism and had received it. The man 
then told me the blessing that had come into his serv- 
ice as superintendent of the Sunday-school. When 
he had finished, his wife broke in and said, ‘‘ Yes, and 
the best part of it is, I have been able to get into the 
hearts of my own children, which I was never able to 
do before.’ Here were three distinctly different lines 
of service, but there was power in each case. The re- 
sults of that power may not, however, be manifest at 
once in conversions. Stephen was filled with the Holy 
Spirit, but as he witnessed in the power of the Holy 
Spirit for his risen Lord, he saw no conversions at the 
time. All he saw was the gnashing of the teeth, the 
angry looks and the merciless rocks, and so it may be 
with us. But there was a conversion, even in that 
case, though it was a long time before it was seen, and 
that conversion, the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, was 
worth more than hundreds of ordinary conversions. 

5. Another result of the baptism with the Holy Spirit 
will be boldness in testimony and service. We read in 
Acts iv. 31, “And when they had prayed, the place 
was shaken where they were assembled together ; and 
they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake 
the word of God with boldness.’ The baptism with the 
Holy Spirit imparts to those who receive it new liberty 
and fearlessness in testimony for Christ. It converts 
cowards into heroes. Peter upon the night of our 
Lord’s crucifixion proved himself a craven coward. 


194 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


He denied with oaths and curses that he knew the 
Lord. But after Pentecost, this same Peter was brought 
before the very council that had condemned Jesus to 
death, and he himself was threatened, but filled with 
the Holy Ghost, he said, ‘* Ye rulers of the people, and 
elders of Israel, if we this day be examined of the good 
deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is 
made whole; be it known unto you all, and to all the 
people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of 
Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the 
dead, even by Him doth this man stand here before you 
whole. ‘This is the stone which was set at nought of 
you builders, which is become the head of the corner. 
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is 
none other name under heaven given among men, 
whereby we must be saved” (Acts iv. 8-12). A 
little later when the council commanded him and his 
companion, John, not to speak or teach in the name of 
Jesus, they answered, ‘ Whether it be right in the 
sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, 
judge ye. For we cannot but speak the things which 
we have seen and heard” (Acts iv. 19, 20). Ona 
still later occasion, when they were threatened and com- 
manded not to speak and when their lives were in 
jeopardy, Peter told the council to their faces, ‘“* We 
ought to obey God rather than men. The God of our 
fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged ona 
tree. Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be 
a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, 
and forgiveness of sins. And we are His witnesses of 
these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 195 


God hath given to them that obey Him” (Acts v. 29- 
32). The natural timidity of many a man to-day 
vanishes when he is filled with the Holy Spirit, and 
with great boldness and liberty, with utter fearlessness 
of consequences, he gives his testimony for Jesus 
Christ. 

6. The baptism with the Holy Spirit causes the one who 
receives it to be occupied with God and Christ and spiritual 
things. In the record of the day of Pentecost, we 
read, ‘“* They were all filled with the Holy Ghost and 
began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave 
them utterance. And they were all amazed and 
marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not these 
which speak Galileans? And how hear we every man 
in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Cretes 
and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues 
the wonderful works of God” (Acts ii. Asi 7s Os Ld). 
Then follows Peter’s sermon, a sermon that from start 
to finish is entirely taken up with Jesus Christ and His 
glory. On a later day we read, “ And when they had 
prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled 
together ; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, 
and they spake the word of God with boldness. And 
with great power gave the Apostles witness of the resur- 
rection of the Lord Jesus : and great grace was upon them 
all. . . . Then Peter, filled with the Foly Ghost, 
said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of 
Israel, if we this day be examined of the good deed 
done to the impotent man, by what means he is made 
whole ; be it known unto you all, and to all the people 
of Israel, that by the name of Fesus of Nazareth, whom 


196 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by 
Him doth this man stand here before you whole” 
(Acts iv. 31, 33, 8-10). We read of Saul of Tarsus, 
that when he had been filled with the Holy Spirit, 
‘¢ Straightway in the synagogues he proclaimed ‘fesus”’ 
(Acts ix. 17,20, R. V.). We read of the household of 
Cornelius, ‘‘ While “Peter yet spake these words, the 
Holy Ghost fell on them who heard the Word. And 
they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, 
as many as came with Peter, because that on the 
Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. 
For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify 
God.’ Here we see the whole household of Cornelius 
as soon as they were filled with the Holy Spirit magnify- 
ing God. In Eph. v. 18, 19, we are told that the result 
of being filled with the Spirit is that those who are thus 
filled will speak to one another in psalms and hymns 
and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in their 
hearts to the Lord. Men who are filled with the Holy 
Spirit will not be singing sentimental ballads, not 
comic ditties, nor operatic airs while the power of the 
Holy Ghost is upon them. Ifthe Holy Ghost should 
come upon any one while listening to one of the most 
innocent of the world’s songs, he would not enjoy tt, 
he would long to hear something about Christ. Men 
who are baptized with the Holy Spirit do not talk much 
about self but much about God, and especially much 
about Christ. This is necessarily so, as it is the Holy 
Spirit’s office to bear witness to the glorified Christ 
(John xv. 26; xvi. 14). 

To sum up everything that has been said about the 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 197 


results of the baptism with the Holy Spirit; the bap- 
tism with the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God coming upon 
the believer, filling his mind with a real apprehension of 
truth, especially of Christ, taking possession of bis faculties, 
imparting to him gifts not otherwise his but which qualify 
him for the service to which God has called him. 

THE NECESSITY OF THE BAPTISM WITH THE SPIRIT. 

The New Testament has much to say about the 
necessity for the baptism with the Holy Spirit. When 
our Lord was about to leave His disciples to go to be 
with the Father, He said, “And, behold, I send the 
promise of My Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city 
of Ferusalem, until ye be endued with power from on 
high”? (Luke xxiv. 49). He had just commissioned 
them to be His witnesses to all nations, beginning at 
Jerusalem (vs. 47, 48), but He here tells them that be- 
fore they undertake this witnessing, they must wait un- 
til they receive the promise of the Father, and were 
thus endued with power from on high for the work of 
witnessing which they were to undertake. ‘There is no 
doubt as to what Jesus meant by “ the promise of My 
Father,” for which they were to wait before beginning 
the ministry that He had laid upon them; for in Acts 
i. 4, 5, we read, “And being assembled together with 
them (He), commanded them that they should not de- 
part from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the 
Father, which, saith He, ye have heard of Me. For 
John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized 
with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” It is 
evident then that “‘ the promise of the Father” through 
which the enduement of power was to come was the 


198 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


baptism with the Holy Spirit. He went on to tell His 
disciples “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy 
Ghost shall come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses 
unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in 
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” 
(Acts 1. 8). Now who were the men to whom Jesus 
said this? The disciples whom He Himself had 
trained for the work. For more than three years, they 
had lived in the closest intimacy with Himself; they 
had been eye-witnesses of His miracles, of His death, 
of His resurrection, and in a few moments were to be 
eye-witnesses of His ascension as He was taken up 
right before their eyes into heaven. And what were 
they todo? Simply to go and tell the world what their 
own eyes had seen and what their own ears had heard 
from the lips of the Son of God. Were they not 
equipped for the work? With our modern ideas of 
preparation for Christian work, we should say that they 
were thoroughly equipped. But Jesus said, “‘ No, you 
are not equipped. ‘There is another preparation in ad- 
dition to the preparation already received, so absolutely 
necessary for effective work that you must not stir one 
step until you receive it. This other preparation is the 
promise of the Father, the baptism with the Holy 
Spirit.” Ifthe Apostles with their altogether exceptional 
fitting for the work which they were to undertake 
needed this preparation for work, how much more do 
we? In the light of what Jesus required of His dis- 
ciples before undertaking the work, does it not seem 
like the most daring presumption for any of us to 
undertake to witness and work for Christ until we also 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 199 


have received the promise of the Father, the baptism 
with the Holy Spirit? ‘There was apparently impera- 
tive need that something be done at once. The whole 
world was perishing and they alone knew the saving 
truth, nevertheless Jesus strictly charged them “ wait.” 
Could there be a stronger testimony to the absolute 
necessity and importance of the baptism with the Holy 
Spirit as a preparation for work that should be accept- 
able to Christ ? 

But this is not all. In Acts x. 38 we read, ‘* How 
God anointed Fesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost 
and power; who went about doing good, and healing 
all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with 
Him.”? ‘To what does this refer in the recorded life of 
Jesus Christ? If we will turn to Luke ili. 21, 22, and 
Luke iv. 1, 4, 17, 18, we will get our answer. In 
Luke iii. 21, 22, R. V., we read that after Jesus had 
been baptized and was praying, ‘‘ The heaven was 
opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily 
form, as a dove, upon Him, and a voice came out of 
heaven, Thou art My beloved Son; in Thee I am 
well pleased.”” Then the next thing that we read, with 
nothing intervening but the human genealogy of 
Jesus, is “And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned 
from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit in the 
wilderness”’ (Luke iv. 1). Then follows the story of 
His temptation ; then in the fourteenth verse we read, 
“And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into 
Galilee: and a fame went out concerning Him through 
all the region round about.’ And in the seventeenth 
and eighteenth verses, “And there was delivered unto 


200 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


Him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And He opened 
the book, and found the place where it was written, 
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath 
anointed Me to preach, etc.” Evidently then, it was at 
the Jordan in connection with His baptism that Jesus 
was anointed with the Holy Spirit and power, 
and He did not enter upon His public ministry 
until He was thus baptized with the Holy Spirit. 
And who was Jesus? It is the common belief 
of Christendom that He had been supernaturally 
conceived through the Holy Spirit’s power, that 
He was the only begotten Son of God, that He was 
Divine, very God of very God, and yet truly man. 
If such an One “leaving us an example that we 
should follow His steps” did not venture upon His 
ministry, for which the Father had sent Him, until 
thus definitely baptized with the Holy Spirit, what is 
it for us to dare to do it? If in the light of these 
recorded facts we dare to do it, does it not seem like 
the most unpardonable presumption? Doubtless it 
has been done in ignorance by many of us, but can we 
plead ignorance any longer? It is evident that the 
baptism with the Holy Spirit is an absolutely necessary 
preparation for effective work for Christ along every 
line of service. We may have a very clear call to 
service, as clear it may be as the Apostles had, but the 
charge is laid upon us as upon them, that before we 
begin that service we must tarry until we are clothed 
with power from on high. This enduement of power 
is through the baptism with the Holy Spirit. 

But this is not all even yet. We read in Acts viii. 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 201 


14-16, ‘* Now when the Apostles which were at 
Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word 
of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: who, 
when they were come down, prayed for them, that they 
might receive the Holy Ghost (for as yet He was fallen 
upon none of them: only they were baptized in the 
name of the Lord Jesus). ‘There was a great com- 
pany of happy converts in Samaria, but when Peter 
and John came down to inspect the work, they evi- 
dently felt that there was something so essential that 
these young disciples had not received that before they 
did anything else, they must see to it that they received 
it. In a similar way we read in Acts xix. 1, 2, R. V., 
“‘And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at 
Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper country 
came to Ephesus, and found certain disciples: and he 
said unto them, Did ye receive the Holy Ghost when 
ye believed?’ When he found that they had not 
received the Holy Spirit, the first thing that he saw to 
was that they should receive the Holy Spirit. He did 
not go on with the work with the outsiders until that 
little group of twelve disciples had been equipped for 
service. So we see that when the Apostles found be- 
lievers in Christ, the first thing that they always did 
was to demand whether they had received the Holy 
Spirit as a definite experience and if not, they saw to it 
at once that the steps were taken whereby they should 
receive the Holy Spirit. It is evident then that the 
baptism with the Holy Spirit is absolutely necessary in 
every Christian for the service that Christ demands and 
expects of him. ‘There are certainly few greater mis- 


202 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


takes that we are making to-day in our various Chris- 
tian enterprises than that of setting men to teach 
Sunday-school classes and do personal work and even 
to preach the Gospel, because they have been converted 
and received a certain amount of education, including 
it may be a college and seminary course, but have not 
as yet been baptized with the Holy Spirit. We think 
that if a man is hopefully pious and has had a college 
and seminary education and comes out of it reasonably 
orthodox, he is now ready that we should lay our hands 
upon him and ordain him to preach the Gospel. But 
Jesus Christ says, “No.” There is another prepara- 
tion so all essential that a man must not undertake this 
work until he has received it. ‘ Tarry ye (literally 
“sit ye down”) until ye be endued with power from 
on high.’ A distinguished theological professor has 
said that the question ought to be put to every candi- 
date for the ministry, “ Have you met God?” Yes, 
but we ought to go farther than this and be even more 
definite ; to every candidate for the ministry we should 
put the question, “ Have you been baptized with the 
Holy Spirit? ” and if not, we should say to him as Jesus 
said to the first preachers of the Gospel, “Sit down 
until you are endued with power from on high.” 

But not only is this true of ordained ministers, it is 
true of every Christian, for all Christians are called to 
ministry of some kind. Any man who is in Christian 
work, who has not received the baptism with the Holy 
Spirit, ought to stop his work right where he is and not 
go on with it until he has been “clothed with power 
from on high.” But what will our work do while we 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 203 


are waiting? The question can be answered by ask- 
ing another, “¢‘ What did the world do during these ten 
days while the early disciples were waiting?”? They 
knew the saving truth, they alone knew it; yet in obedi- 
ence to the Lord’s command they were silent. The 
world was no loser. Beyond a doubt, when the power 
came, they accomplished more in one day than they 
would have accomplished in years if they had gone on 
in self-confident defiance and disobedience to Christ’s 
command. We too after that we have received the 
baptism with the Spirit will accomplish more of real 
work for our Lord in one day than we ever would in 
years without this power. Even if it were necessary to 
spend days in waiting, they would be well spent, but 
we shall see later that there is no need that we spend 
days in waiting, that the baptism with the Holy Spirit 
may be received to-day. Some one may say that the 
Apostles had gone on missionary tours during Christ’s 
lifetime, even before they were baptized with the Holy 
Spirit. ‘This is true, but that was before the Holy Spirit 
was given, and before the command was given, “ Tarry 
ye until ye be clothed with power from on high.” 
After that it would have been disobedience and folly 
and presumption to have gone forth without this endue- 
ment, and we are living to-day after the Holy Spirit has 
been given and after the charge has been given to tarry 
until clothed. 

WHO CAN BE BAPTIZED WITH THE Hoty Spirit? 

We come now to the question of first importance, 
namely, Who can be baptized with the Holy Spirit? At 
a convention some years ago, a very intelligent Chris- 


204. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


tian woman, a well-known worker in educational as 
well as Sunday-school work, sent me this question, 
‘You have told us of the necessity of the baptism with 
the Holy Spirit, but who can have this baptism? The 
church to which I belong teaches that the baptism with 
the Holy Spirit was confined to the apostolic age. 
Will you not tell us who can have the baptism with the 
Holy Spirit?” Fortunately this question is answered in 
the most explicit terms in the Bible. We read in Acts 
ii. 38, 39, R. V., “ And Peter said unto them, Repent 
ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of 
Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye 
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For to you 
is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are 
afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call 
unto Him.’’ What is the promise to which Peter refers 
in the thirty-ninth verse? ‘There are two interpreta- 
tions of the passage; one is that the promise of this 
verse is the promise of salvation; the other is that the 
promise of this verse is the promise of the gift of the 
Holy Spirit (or the baptism with the Holy Spirit; a 
comparison of Scripture passages will show that the two 
expressions are synonymous). Which is the correct 
interpretation? ‘There are two laws of interpretation 
universally recognized among Bible scholars. These 
two laws are the law of usage (or “ usus loquendi ”’ as 
it is called) and the law of context. Many a verse in 
the Bible standing alone might admit of two or three or 
even more interpretations, but when these two laws of 
interpretation” are applied, it is settled to a certainty 
that only one of the various possible interpretations is 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 205 


the true interpretation. The law of usage is this, that 
when you find a word or phrase in any passage of 
Scripture and you wish to know what it means, do not 
go to a dictionary but go to the Bible itself, look up the 
various passages in which the word is used and 
especially how the particular writer being studied uses 
it, and especially how it is used in that particular book 
in which the passage is found. “Thus you can deter- 
mine what the precise meaning of the word or phrase ts 
in the passage in question. ‘The law of context is 
this; that when you study a passage, you should not 
take it out of its connection but should look at what 
goes before it and what comes after it; for while it 
might mean various things if it stood alone, it can only 
mean one thing in the connection in which it is found. 
Now let us apply these two laws to the passage in 
question. First of all, let us apply the law of usage. 
We are trying to discover what the expression “the 
> means in Acts il. 39. “Turning back to Acts 
i. 4, 5, R. V., we read, “ He charged them not to de- 
part from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the 
Father, which, said He, ye heard from Me: for John 
indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized 
with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” It is evident 
then, that here the promise of the Father means the 
baptism with the Holy Spirit. “Turn now to the second 
chapter and the thirty-third verse, R. V., ‘‘ Being 
therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and having 
received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He 
hath poured forth this, which ye see and hear.” In 
this passage we are told in so many words that the 


promise ’ 


200 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


promise is the promise of the Holy Spirit. If this 
peculiar expression means the baptism with the Holy 
Spirit in Acts i. 4, 5,and the same thing in Acts ii. 33, 
by what same law of interpretation can it possibly mean 
something entirely different six verses farther down in 
Acts il. 39? So the law of usage establishes it that the 
promise of Acts ii. 39 isthe promise of the baptism with 
the Holy Spirit. Now let us apply the law of context, 
and we shall find that, if possible, this is even more 
decisive. Turn back to the thirty-eighth verse, “* And 
Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every 
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remis- 
sion of your sins ; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy 
Ghost; for the promise is unto you, etc.’ So eas 
evident here that the promise is the promise of the gift 
or baptism with the Holy Spirit. It is settled then 
by both laws that the promise of Acts ii. 39 is that of 
the gift of the Holy Spirit, or baptism with the Holy 
Spirit. Let us then read the verse in that way, substi- 
tuting this synonymous expression for the expression 
“the promise,” “For the baptism with the Spirit is 
unto you, and to your children and to all that are afar 
off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” 
“‘/t is unto you,” says Peter, that is to the crowd as- 
sembled before him. There is nothing in that for us. 
We were not there, and that crowd were all Jews and 
we are not Jews; but Peter did not stop there, he goes 
further and says, “And to your children,’ that is to the 
next generation of Jews, or all future generations of 
_ Jews. Still there is nothing in it for us, for we are not 
Jews; but Peter did not stop even there, he went further 


, —s = 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 207 


and said, “And to all them that are afar off.’ That 
does take us in. We are the Gentiles who were once 
“Cafar off,” but now “made nigh by the blood of 
Christ” (Eph. ti. 13, 17). But lest there be any mis- 
take about it whatever, Peter adds “even as many as 
the Lord our God shall call unto Him.’’ So on the 
very day of Pentecost, Peter declares that the baptism 
with the Holy Spirit is for every child of God in every 
coming age of the church’s history. Some years ago 
at a ministerial conference in Chicago, a minister of 
the Gospel from the Southwest came to me after a 
lecture on the Baptism with the Holy Spirit and said, 
“The church to which I belong teaches that the bap- 
tism with the Holy Spirit was for the apostolic age 
alone.”” ‘*I do not care,” I replied, “ what the church 
to which you belong teaches, or what the church to 
which I belong teaches. The only question with me 
is, What does the Word of God teach?” ‘That is 
right,” he said. I then handed him my Bible and asked 
him to read Acts ii. 39, and he read, “‘ For the promise 
is unto you, and unto your children and to all them 
that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God 
shall call unto Him” (R.V.). ‘Has He called you?” 
I asked. ‘* Yes, He certainly has.”? ‘Is the promise 
for younthen £97) yes. itis,” he took) itiand; the 
result was a transformed ministry. Some years ago at 
a students’ conference, the gatherings were presided 
over by a prominent Episcopalian minister, a man greatly 
honoured and loved. I spoke at this conference on 
the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, and dwelt upon 
the significance of Acts ii. 39. That night as we sat 


208 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


together after the meetings were over, this servant of 
God said to me, “‘ Brother Torrey, I was greatly inter- 
ested in what you had to say to-day on the Baptism 
with the Holy Spirit. If your interpretation of Acts ii. 39 
is correct, you have your case, but [ doubt your inter- 
pretation of Acts il. 39. Let us talk it over.’ We 
did talk it over. Several years later, in July, 1894, I 
was at the students’ conference at Northfield. As I 
entered the back door of Stone Hall that day, this 
Episcopalian minister entered the front door. Seeing 
me he hurried across the hall and held out his hand 
and said, “ You were right about Acts ii. 39 at Knox- 
ville, and I believe I have a right to tell you something 
better yet, that I have been baptized with the Holy 
Spirit.” I am glad that I was right about Acts 11. 39, 
not that it is of any importance that I should be right, 
but the truth thus established is of immeasurable im- 
portance. Is it not glorious to be able to go literally 
around the world and face audiences of believers all 
over the United States, in the Sandwich Islands, in 
Australia and Tasmania and New Zealand, in China 
and Japan and India, in England and Scotland, Ireland, 
Germany, France and Switzerland and to be able to 
tell them, and to know that you have God’s sure 
Word under your feet when you do tell them, “ You 
may all be baptized with the Holy Spirit” ? But that 
unspeakably joyous and glorious thought has its solemn 
side. If we may be baptized with the Holy Spirit 
then we must be. If we are baptized with the Holy 
Spirit then souls will be saved through our instru- 
mentality who will not be saved if we are not thus 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 209 


baptized. If then we are not willing to pay the price 
of this baptism and therefore are not thus baptized we 
shall be responsible before God for every soul that 
might have been saved who was not saved because we 
did not pay the price and therefore did not obtain 
the blessing. I often tremble for myself and for my 
brethren in the ministry, and not only for my brethren 
in the ministry but for my brethren in all forms of 
Christian work, even the most humble and obscure. 
Why? Because we are preaching error? No, alas, 
there are many in these dark days who are doing that, 
and I do tremble for them; but that is not what I 
mean now. Do I mean that I tremble because we are 
not preaching the truth? for it is quite possible not to 
preach error and yet not preach the truth; many a man 
has never preached a word of error in his life, but still 
is not preaching the truth, and I do tremble for them; 
but that is not what I mean now. I mean that I 
tremble for those of us who are preaching the truth, the 
very truth as it is in Jesus, the truth as it is recorded 
in the written Word of God, the truth in its simplicity, 
its purity and its fullness, but who are preaching it in 
“persuasive words of man’s wisdom” and not “in 
demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Cor. 
ll. 4, R. V.). Preaching it in the energy of the flesh 
and not in the power of the Holy Spirit. There is 
nothing more death dealing than the Gospel without 
the Spirit’s power. ‘ The letter killeth, but the Spirit 
giveth life.’ It is awfully solemn business preaching 
the Gospel either from the pulpit or in more quiet 
ways. It means death or life to those that hear, and 


210 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


whether it means death or life depends very largely on 
whether we preach it with or without the baptism with 
the Holy Spirit. 

We must be baptized with the Holy Spirit. 

Even after one has been baptized with the Holy 
Spirit, no matter how definite that baptism may be, he 
needs to be filled again and again with the Spirit. This 
is the clear teaching of the New Testament. We 
read in Acts ii. 4, “* They were all filled with the Holy 
Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the 
Spirit gave them utterance.’ Now one of those who 
was present on this occasion and who therefore was 
filled at this time with the Holy Spirit was Peter. In- 
deed, he stands forth most prominently in the chapter 
as a man baptized with the Holy Spirit. But we read 
in Acts iv. 8, “Then Peter, filled with the Holy 
Ghost, said unto them, etc.” Here we read again that 
Peter was filled with the Holy Ghost. Further down 
in the chapter we read, in the thirty-first verse, that being 
assembled together and praying, they were all filled with 
the Holy Ghost, and they spake the Word of God with 
boldness.”” We are expressly told in the context that 
two of those present were John and Peter. Here then 
was a third instance in which Peter was filled with the 
Holy Spirit. It is not enough that one be filled with 
the Holy Spirit once. We need a new filling for each 
new emergency of Christian service. The failure to 
realize this need of constant refillings with the Holy 
Spirit has led to many a man who at one time was 
greatly used of God, being utterly laid aside. There 
are many to-day who once knew what it was to work 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 211 


in the power of the Holy Spirit who have lost their 
unction and their power. I do not say that the Holy 
Spirit has left them—I do not believe He has—but the 
manifestation of His presence and power has gone. 
One of the saddest sights among us to-day is that of 
the men and women who once toiled for the Master in 
the mighty power of the Holy Spirit who are now prac- 
tically of no use, or even a hindrance to the work, be- 
cause they are trying to go in the power of the blessing 
received a year or five years or twenty years ago. For 
each new service that is to be conducted, for each new 
soul that is to be dealt with, for each new work for 
Christ that is to be performed, for each new day and 
each new emergency of Christian life and service, we 
should seek and obtain a new filling with the Holy 
Spirit. We must not “ neglect” the gift that is in us 
(1 ‘Tim. iv. 14), but on the contrary “ kindle anew ” or 
Petineinto fame) ithis eife) (ne) imei. 6, Rov. mare 
gin). Repeated fillings with the Holy Spirit are neces- 
sary to continuance and increase of power. 

The question may arise, ‘‘ Shall we call these new 
fillings with the Holy Spirit ‘ fresh baptisms’ with the 
Holy Spirit?’ To this we would answer, the expres- 
sion “baptism” is never used in the Scriptures of a 
second experience and there is something of an initia- 
tory character in the very thought of baptism, so if one 
wishes to be precisely Biblical, it would seem to be better 
not to use the term “ baptism ” of a second experience 
but to limit it to the first experience. On the other 
hand “ filled with the Holy Spirit ” is used in Acts ii. 
4, to describe the experience promised in Acts i. 5, 


212 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


where the words used are ‘¢ Ye shall be baptized with the 
Holy Ghost.” And it is evident from this and from 
other passages that the two expressions are to a large 
extent practically synonymous. However, if we con- 
fine the expression “ baptism with the Holy Spirit ” to 
our first experience, we shall be more exactly Biblical 
and it would be well to speak of one baptism but many 
fillings. But I would a great deal rather that one should 
speak about new or fresh baptisms with the Holy Spirit, 
standing for the all-important truth that we need re- 
peated fillings with the Holy Spirit, than that he should 
so insist on exact phraseology that he would lose sight 
of the truth that repeated fillings are needed, 2. ¢., I 
would rather have the right experience by a wrong name, 
than the wrong experience by the right name. This 
much is as clear as day, that we need to be filled again 
and again and again with the Holy Spirit. I am some- 
times asked, ‘ Have you received the second blessing ?”’ 
Yes, and the third and the fourth and the fifth and 
hundreds beside, and I am looking for a new blessing 
to-day. 

We come now to the question of first practical im- 
portance, namely, WHAT MUST ONE DO IN ORDER TO OB- 
TAIN THE BAPTISM WITH THE HOLy Spirit? ‘This ques- 
tion is answered in the plainest and most positive way in 
the Bible. A plain path is laid down in the Bible consist- 
ing of a few simple steps that any one can take, and it 
is absolutely certain that any one who takes these steps 
will enter into the blessing. ‘This is, of couse, a very 
positive statement, and we would not dare be so posi- 
tive if the Bible were not equally positive. But what 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 213 


right have we to be uncertain when the Word of God 
is positive ? ‘There are seven steps in this path: 

1. The first step is that we accept Fesus Christ as 
our Saviour and Lord. We read in Acts ii. 38, R. V., 
“Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the 
name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and 
ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”’ Is not 
this statement as positive as that which we made above? 
Peter says that if we do certain things, the result will 
be, “Ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” 
All seven steps are in this passage, but we shall refer 
later to other passages as throwing light upon this. 
The first two steps are in the word “repent.”  Re- 
pent ye,” said Peter. What does it mean to repent? 
The Greek word for repentance means “an after- 
thought? or “change of mind.” To repent then 
means to change your mind. But change your mind 
about what? About three things; about God, about 
Jesus Christ, about sin. What the change of mind is 
about in any given instance must be determined by the 
context. As determined by the context in the present 
case, the change of mind is primarily about Jesus Christ. 
Peter had just said in the thirty-sixth verse, R.V., “Let 
all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath 
made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye 
crucified. When they heard this, they were pricked in 
their heart,”’ as well they might be, “‘ and said unto Peter 
and the rest of the Apostles, Brethren, what shall we 
dof”? Then it was that Peter said, “‘ Repent Venn 
“Change your mind about Jesus, change your mind 
from that attitude of mind that rejected Him and cruci- 


214 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


fied Him to that attitude of mind that accepts Him as 
Lord and King and Saviour.”” This then is the first step 
towards receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit ; 
receive Jesus as Saviour and Lord; first of all receive 
Him as your Saviour. Have you done that? 

What does it mean to receive Jesus as Saviour? It 
means to accept Him as the One who bore our sins in 
our place on the cross (Gal. iii. 13; 2 Cor. v. 21) and 
to trust God to forgive us because Jesus Christ died in 
our place. It means to rest all our hope of acceptance 
before God upon the finished work of Christ upon the 
cross of Calvary. There are many who profess to be 
Christians who have not done this. When you go to 
many who call themselves Christians and ask them if 
they are saved, they reply, “ Yes.” Then if you put 
to them the question “‘ Upon what are you resting as 
the ground of your salvation?” they will reply some- 
thing like this, “I go to church; I say my prayers, I 
read my Bible, I have been baptized, I have united with 
the church, I partake of the Lord’s supper, I attend 
prayer-meeting, and I am trying to live as near right as 
I know how.” If these things are what you are rest- 
ing upon as the ground of your acceptance before God, 
then you are not saved, for all these things are your 
own works (all proper in their places but still your own 
works) and we are distinctly told in Rom. iii. 20, R. V., 
that “‘ By the works of the law shall no flesh be justi- 
fed in His sight.” But if you go to others and ask 
them if they are saved, they will reply “* Yes.” And 
then if you ask them upon what they are resting as the 
ground of their acceptance before God, they will reply 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 215 


something to this effect, “‘] am not resting upon any- 
thing I ever did, or upon anything I am ever going to 
do; I am resting upon what Jesus Christ did for me 
when He bore my sins in His own body on the cross. 
I am resting in His finished work of atonement.” If 
this is what you are really resting upon, then you are 
saved, you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Saviour 
and you have taken the first step towards the baptism 
with the Holy Spirit. 

The same thought is taught elsewhere in the Bible, 
for example in Gal. iii. 2. Here Paul asks of the be- 
lievers in Galatia, ‘‘ Received ye the Holy Spirit by the 
works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” Just 
what did he mean? On one occasion when Paul was 
passing through Galatia, he was detained there by some 
physical infirmity. We are not told what it was, but 
at all events, he was not so ill but that he could preach 
to the Galatians the Gospel, or glad tidings, that Jesus 
Christ had redeemed them from the curse of the law by 
becoming a curse in their place, by dying on the cross 
of Calvary. These Galatians believed this testimony ; 
this was the hearing of faith, and God set the stamp of 
His endorsement upon their faith by giving them as a 
personal experience the Holy Spirit. But after Paul 
had left Galatia, certain Judaizers came down from 
Jerusalem, men who were substituting the law of 
Moses for the Gospel and taught them that it was not 
enough that they simply believe on Jesus Christ but in 
addition to this they must keep the law of Moses, 
especially the law of Moses regarding circumcision, 
and that without circumcision they could not be 


216 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


saved—i. ¢., they could not be saved by simple 
faith in Jesus (cf. Acts xv. 1). These young con- 
verts in Galatia became all upset. They did not 
know whether they were saved or not; they did not 
know what they ought to do, and all was confusion. 
It was just as when modern Judaizers come around and 
get after young converts and tell them that in addition 
to believing in Jesus Christ, they must keep the Mosaic 
Seventh Day Sabbath, or they cannot be saved. This 
is simply the old controversy breaking out at a new 
point. When Paul heard what had happened in 
Galatia, he was very indignant and wrote the Epistle to 
the Galatians simply for the purpose of exposing the 
utter error of these Judaizers. He showed them how 
Abraham himself was justified before he was circumcised 
by simply believing God (Gal. iii. 6), and how he was 
circumcised after he was justified as a seal of the faith 
which he already had while he was in uncircumcision. 
But in addition to this proof of the error of the Judaizers, 
Paul appeals to their own personal experience. He says 
to them, “* You received the Holy Spirit, did you not?” 
“Yes.” ‘*How did you receive the Holy Spirit, by 
keeping the law of Moses, or by the hearing of faith, 
the simple accepting of God’s testimony about Jesus 
Christ that your sins were laid upon Him, and that you 
are thus justified and saved?” The Galatians had had 
a very definite experience of receiving the Holy Spirit 
and Paul appeals to it, and recalls to their mind how it 
was by the simple hearing of faith that they had re- 
ceived the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit is 
God’s seal upon the simple acceptance of God’s testi- 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 217 


mony about Jesus Christ, that our sins were laid upon 
Him, and thus trusting God to forgive us and justify us. 
This then is the first step towards receiving the Holy 
Spirit. But we must not only receive Jesus as Saviour, 
we must also receive Him as Lord. Of this we shall 
speak further in connection with another passage in the 
fourth step. 

2. The second step in the path that leads into the 
blessing of being baptized with the Holy Spirit is re- 
nunctation of sin. Repentance as we have seen is a 
change of mind about sin as well as a change of mind 
about Christ; a change of mind from that attitude of 
mind that loves sin and indulges sin to that attitude of 
mind that hates sin and renounces sin. This then is 
the second step—renunciation of sin. The Holy Spirit 
is a Holy Spirit and we cannot have both Him and sin. 
We must make our choice between the Holy Spirit and 
unholy sin. We cannot have both. He that will not 
give up sin cannot have the Holy Spirit. It is not 
enough that we renounce one sin or two sins or three 
sins or many sins, we must renounce all sin. If we 
cling to one single known sin, it will shut us out of the 
blessing. Here we find the cause of failure in many 
people who are praying for the baptism with the Holy 
Spirit, going to conventions and hearing about the bap- 
tism with the Holy Spirit, reading books about the bap- 
tism with the Holy Spirit, perhaps spending whole 
nights in prayer for the baptism with the Holy Spirit, 
and yet obtaining nothing. Why? Because there is 
some sin to which they are clinging. People often say 
to me, or write to me, “J have been praying for the 


218 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


baptism with the Holy Spirit for a year (five years, ten 
years, one man said twenty years). Why do I not re- 
ceive?” In many such cases, I feel led to reply, “ It 
is sin, and if I could look down into your heart this 
moment as God looks into your heart, I could put my 
finger on the specific sin.’ It may be what you are 
pleased to call a small sin, but there are no small sins. 
There are sins that concern small things, but every sin 
is an act of rebellion against God and therefore no sin 
is a small sin. A controversy with God about the 
smallest thing is sufficient to shut one out of the bless- 
ing. Mr. Finney tells of a woman who was greatly 
exercised about the baptism with the Holy Spirit. 
Every night after the meetings, she would go to her 
rooms and pray way into the night and her friends were 
afraid she would go insane, but no blessing came. One 
night as she prayed, some little matter of head adorn- 
ment, a matter that would probably not trouble many 
Christians to-day, but a matter of controversy between 
her and God, came up (as it had often come up before) 
as she knelt in prayer. She put her hand to her head 
and took the pins out of her hair and threw them across 
the room and said, “‘ There go ! ”’ and instantly the Holy 
Ghost fell upon her. It was not so much the matter 
of head adornment as the matter of controversy with 
God that had kept her out of the blessing. 

If there is anything that always comes up when you 
get nearest to God, that is the thing to deal with. 
Some years ago at a convention in a Southern state, the 
presiding officer, a minister in the Baptist Church, 
called my attention to a man and said, “* That man is 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 219 


the pope of our denomination in 


3 everything 
he says goes, but he is not at all with us in this matter, 
but I am glad to see him here.”’ This minister kept 
attending the meetings. At the close of the last meet- 
ing where I had spoken upon the conditions of receiv- 
ing the baptism with the Holy Spirit, I found this man 
awaiting me in the vestibule. He said, “I did not 
stand up on your invitation to-day.” I replied, “I 
saw you did not.” ‘I thought you said,” he contin- 
ued, “‘ that you only wanted those to stand who could 
say they had absolutely surrendered to God?”’ ‘ That 
is what I did say,” I replied. ‘* Well, I could not say 
that.”” ‘* Then you did perfectly right not tostand. | 
did not want you to lie to God.” Say,” he contin- 
ued, “you hit me pretty hard to-day. You said if there 
was anything that always comes up when you get near- 
est to God, that is the thing to deal with. Now there 
is something that always comes up when I get nearest 
to God. I am not going to tell you what it is. I 
think you know.” ‘ Yes,’ I replied. (I could smell 
it.) ‘Well, I simply wanted to say this to you.” 
This was on Friday afternoon. I had occasion to go 
to another city, and returning through that city the fol- 
lowing ‘Tuesday morning, the minister who had pre- 
sided at the meeting was at the station. ‘I wish you 
could have been in our Baptist ministers’ meeting yes- 
terday morning,” he said; ‘“‘that man I pointed out to 
you from the north part of the state was present. He 
got up in our meeting and said,‘ Brethren, we have 
been all wrong about this matter,’ and then he told 
what he haddone. He had settled his controversy 


220 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


with God, had given up the thing which had always 
come up when he got nearest to God, then he contin- 
ued and said, ‘ Brethren, I have received a more definite 
experience than I had when I was converted.’” Just 
such an experience is waiting many another, both min- 
ister and layman, just as soon as he will judge his sin, 
just as soon as he will put away the thing that is a mat- 
ter of controversy between him and God, no matter 
how small the thing may seem. If any one sincerely 
desires the baptism with the Holy Spirit, he should go 
alone with God and ask God to search him and bring 
to light anything in his heart or life that is displeasing 
to Him, and when He brings it to light, he should put 
it away. If after sincerely waiting on God, nothing is 
brought to light, then we may proceed to take the other 
steps. But there is no use praying, no use going to 
conventions, no use in reading books about the baptism 
with the Holy Spirit, no use in doing anything else, 
until we judge our sins. 

3- The third step is an open confession of our renun- 
ciation of sin and our acceptance of Fesus Christ. After 
telling his hearers to repent in Acts ii. 38, Peter con- 
tinues and tells them to be “ baptized every one of you 
in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your 
sins.” Heart repentance alone was not enough. There 
must be an open confession of that repentance, and 
God’s appointed way of confession of repentance is 
baptism. None of those to whom Peter spoke had 
ever been baptized, and, of course, what Peter meant 
in that case was water baptism. But suppose one has 
already been baptized, what then? Even in that case, 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 221 


there must be that for which baptism stands, namely, 
an open confession of our renunciation of sin and our 
acceptance of Jesus Christ. The baptism with the 
Spirit is not for the secret disciple, but for the open 
confessed disciple. There are many doubtless to-day 
who are trying to be Christians in their hearts, many 
who really believe that they have accepted Jesus as 
their Saviour and their Lord and have renounced sin, 
but they are not willing to make an open confession of 
their renunciation of sin and their acceptance of Christ. 
Such an one cannot have the baptism with the Holy 
Spirit. Some one may ask, “Do not the Friends 
(“‘ Quakers’’), who do not believe in water baptism, give 
evidence of being baptized with the Holy Spirit?” 
Doubtless many of them do, but this does not alter the 
teaching of God’s Word. God doubtless condescends 
in many instances where people are misled as to the 
teaching of His Word to their ignorance, if they are 
sincere, but that fact does not alter His Word, and 
even with a member of the congregation of Friends, 
who sincerely does not believe in water baptism, there 
must be before the blessing is received that for which 
baptism stands, namely, the open confession of our ac- 
ceptance of Christ and of our renunciation of sin. 

4. he fourth step is absolute surrender to God. 
This comes out in what has been already said, namely, 
that we must accept “fesus as Lord as well as Saviour. 
It is stated explicitly in Acts v. 32, “And we are 
His witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy 
Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him.” 
That is the fourth step, “‘ obey Him,” obedience. But 


222 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


what does obedience mean? Some one will say, doing 
as we are told. Right, but doing how much that we 
are told? Not merely one thing or two things or three 
things or four things, but all things. The heart of 
obedience is in the will, the essence of obedience is the 
surrender of the will to God. It is going to God our 
heavenly Father and saying, ‘“‘ Heavenly Father, here I 
am. Jam Thy property. Thou hast bought me with 
a price. J acknowledge Thine ownership, and sur- 
render myself and all that I am absolutely to Thee. 
Send me where Thou wilt; do with me what Thou 
wilt; use me as Thou wilt.’’ ‘This is in most instances 
the decisive step in receiving the baptism with the Holy 
Spirit. In the Old Testament types it was when the 
whole burnt offering was laid upon the altar, nothing 
kept back within or without the sacrificial animal, that 
the fire came forth from the Holy Place where God 
dwelt and accepted and consumed the gift upon the 
altar. And so it is to-day, in the fulfillment of the type, 
when we lay ourselves, a whole burnt offering, upon the 
altar, keeping nothing within or without back, that the 
fire of God, the Holy Spirit, descends from the real 
Holy Place, heaven (of which the Most Holy Place in 
the tabernacle was simply a type), and accepts the gift 
upon the altar. When we can truly say, My all is 
on the altar,” then we shall not have long to wait for 
the fire. The lack of this absolute surrender is shut- 
ting many out of the blessing to-day. People turn the 
keys of almost every closet in their heart over to God, 
but there is some small closet of which they wish to 
keep the key themselves, and the blessing does not come. 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 223 


At a convention in Washington, D. C., on the last 
night, I had spoken on How to Receive the Baptism 
with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit Himself was present 
in mighty power that night. The chaplain of one of 
the houses had said to me at the close of the meeting, 
“Tt almost seemed as if I could see the Holy Spirit in 
this place to-night.” There were many to be dealt 
with. About two hours after the meeting closed, about 
eleven o’clock, a worker came to me and said, ** Do you 
see that young woman over to the right with whom Miss 
WwW is speaking?’ “Yes.” ‘ Well, she has been 
dealing with her for two hours and she is in awful agony. 


Won’t you come and see if you can help?” I went 
into the seat back of this woman in distress and asked 
her her trouble. ‘ Oh,” she said, “I came from Balti- 
more to receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and 
I cannot go back to Baltimore until I have received 
Him.” “Is your will laid down?” I asked. “Iam 
afraid not.” ‘¢ Will you lay itdownnow?” “TJ can- 
not.” “ Are you willing that God should lay it down 
for-yout.’  ‘¢ Yes.??' 0s Ask Him’ to do: it2?. She 
bowed her head in prayer and asked God to empty her 
of her will, to lay it down for her, to bring it into con- 
formity to His will, in absolute surrender to His own. 
When the prayer was finished, I said, “ Is it laid down?” 
She said, ‘It must be. I have asked something ac- 
cording to His will. Yes, it is done.” [ said, * Ask 
Him for the baptism with the Holy Spirit.” She 
bowed her head again in brief prayer and asked God to 
baptize her with the Holy Spirit and in a few moments 
looked up with peace in her heart and in her face. 


224. The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


Why? Because she had surrendered her will. She 
had met the conditions and God had given the blessing. 

5. The fifth step is an intense desire for the baptism 
with the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in John vil. 37-39, 
“Tf any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. 
He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, 
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But 
this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on 
Him should receive.”’ Here again we have belief on 
Jesus as the condition of receiving the Holy Spirit but 
we have also this, “‘ If any man thirst.” Doubtless when 
Jesus spake these words He had in mind the Old Tes- 
tament promise in Isa. xliv. 3, ‘ For I will pour water 
upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: 
I will pour AZy Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing 
upon thine offspring.” In both these passages thirst 
is the condition of receiving the Holy Spirit. What 
does it mean to thirst? When a man really thirsts, it 
seems as if every pore in his body had jast one cry, 
“ Water! Water! Water!” Apply this to the 
matter in question; when a man thirsts spiritually, his 
whole being has but one cry, “The Holy Spirit ! The 
Holy Spirit! The Holy Spirit!’’? As long as one 
fancies he can get along somehow without the baptism 
with the Holy Spirit, he is not going to receive that 
baptism. As long as one is casting about for some new 
kind of church, machinery, or new style of preaching, 
or anything else, by which he hopes to accomplish what 
the Holy Spirit only can accomplish, he will not receive 
the baptism with the Holy Spirit. As long as one tries 
to find some subtle system of exegesis to read out of 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 225 


the New Testament what God has put into it, namely, 
the absolute necessity that each believer receive the 
baptism with the Holy Spirit as a definite experience, 
he is not going to receive the baptism with the Holy 
Spirit. As long as a man tries to persuade himself that 
he has received the baptism with the Holy Spirit when 
he really has not, he is not going to receive the baptism 
with the Holy Spirit. But when one gets to the place 
where he sees the absolute necessity that he be baptized 
with the Holy Spirit as a definite experience and desires 
this blessing at any cost, he is far on the way towards 
receiving it. Ata state Young Men’s Christian Asso- 
ciation Convention, where I had spoken on the Baptism 
with the Holy Spirit, two ministers went out of the 
meeting side by side. One said to the other, “¢ That 
kind of teaching leads either to fanaticism or despair.” 
He did not attempt to show that it was unscriptural. 
He felt condemned and was not willing to admit his 
lack and seek to have it supplied, and so he tried to 
avoid the condemnation that came from the Word by 
this bright remark, ‘‘ that kind of teaching leads either 
to fanaticism or despair.”” Such a man will not receive 
the baptism with the Holy Spirit until he is brought to 
himself and acknowledges honestly his need and in- 
tensely desires to have it supplied. How different an- 
other minister of the same denomination who came to 
me one Sunday morning at Northfield. I was to speak 
that morning on How to Receive the Baptism with the 
Holy Spirit. He said to me, “‘ I have come to Northfield 


from 


for just one purpose, to receive the bap- 
tism with the Holy Spirit, and I would rather die than go 


226 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


back to my church without receiving it.” I said, “ My 
brother, you are going to receive it.’ The following 
morning he came very early to my house. He said, 
“¢] have to go away on the early train but I came around 
to tell you before I went that I have received the bap- 
tism with the Holy Spirit.” 

6. The sixth step is definite prayer for the baptism 
with the Holy Spirit. Jesus says in Luke xi. 13, “If 
ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto 
your children: how much more shall your heavenly 
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.” 
This is very explicit. Jesus teaches us that the Holy 
Spirit is given in answer to definite prayer—just ask 
Him. ‘There are many who tell us that we should not 
pray for the Holy Spirit, and they reason it out very 
speciously. ‘They say that the Holy Spirit was given 
as an abiding gift to the church at Pentecost, and why 
pray for what is already given? To this the late 
Rev. Dr. A. J. Gordon well replied that Jesus Christ 
was given as an abiding gift to the world at Calvary 
(John iii. 16), but what was given to the world as a 
whole each individual in the world must appropriate to 
himself; and just so the Holy Spirit was given to the 
church as an abiding gift at Pentecost, but what was 
given to the church as a whole each individual in the 
church must appropriate to himself, and God’s way of 
appropriation is prayer. But those who say we should 
not pray for the Holy Spirit go further still than this. 
They tell us that every believer already has the Holy 
Spirit (which we have already seen is true in a sense), 
and why pray for what we already have? ‘To this the 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 227 


very simple answer is, that it is one thing to have the 
Holy Spirit dwelling way back of consciousness in 
some hidden sanctuary of the being and something quite 
different, and vastly more, to have Him take possession 
of the whole house that He inhabits. But against all 
these specious arguments we place the simple word of 
Jesus Christ, “How much more shall your heavenly 
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.” 
It will not do to say, as has been said, that “ this 
promise was for the time of the earth life of our Lord, 
and to go back to the promise of Luke xi. 12 is to for- 
get Pentecost, and to ignore the truth that now every 
believer has the indwelling Spirit; for we find that 
after Pentecost as well as before, the Holy Spirit was 
given to believers in answer to definite prayer. For 
example, we read in Acts iv. 31, R. V., “ When they 
had prayed, the place was shaken wherein they were 
gathered together, and they were all filled with the Holy 
Ghost, and they spake the Word of God with boldness.” 
Again in Acts viii. 15, 16, we read that when Peter 
and John were come down and saw the believers in 
Samaria they “‘ prayed for them that they might receive the 
Holy Ghost, for as yet He was fallen upon none of them, 
only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” 
Again in the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, Paul 
tells the believers in Ephesus that he was praying for 
them that they might be strengthened with power 
through His Spirit (Epb. iii. 16). So right through the 
New Testament after Pentecost, as well as before, by 
specific teaching and illustrative example, we are taught 
that the Holy Spirit is given in answer to definite 


228 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


prayer. Ata Christian workers’ convention in Boston, 
a brother came to me and said, “I notice that you are 
on the program to speak on the Baptism with the Holy 
Spirit.” “Yes.” I think that is the most important 
subject on the program. Now be sure and tell them 
not to pray for the Holy Spirit.’ I replied, “ My 
brother, I will be sure and not tell them that: for 
Jesus says, ‘How much more shall your heavenly 
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him ?’” 
“Yes, but that was before Pentecost.” ‘* How about 
Acts iv. 31, R. V., was that before Pentecost or after ?” 
He said, “It was certainly after.” ‘‘ Well,” I said, 
“take it and read it.’ ‘And when they had prayed, 
the place where they were gathered together was shaken, 
and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and spake 
the Word of God with boldness.”? ‘ How about Acts 
viii. 15, 16, was that before Pentecost or after?” 
“Certainly, it was after.” ‘Take it and read it.” 
‘© Who when they were come down prayed for them 
that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for as yet He 
was fallen on none of them, only they were baptized in 
the name of Jesus.” He had nothing more to say. 
What was there more to say? But with me, it is not 
a matter of mere exegesis, that the Holy Spirit is given 
in answer to definite prayer. It is a matter of personal 
and indubitable experience. I know just as well that 
God gives the Holy Spirit in answer to prayer as I 
know that water quenches thirst and food satisfies 
hunger. In my first experience of being baptized with 
the Holy Spirit, it was while I waited upon God in 
prayer that I was thus baptized. Since then time and 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 229 


again as I have waited on God in prayer, I have been 
definitely filled with the Holy Spirit. Often as I have 
knelt in prayer with others, as we prayed the Holy 
Spirit has fallen upon us just as perceptibly as the rain 
ever fell upon and fructified the earth. I shall never 
forget one experience in our church in Chicago. We 
were holding a noon prayer-meeting of the ministers at 
the Y. M. C. A. Auditorium, preparatory to an ex- 
pected visit to Chicago of Mr. Moody. At one of 
these meetings a minister sprang to his feet and said, 
““What we need in Chicago is an all-night meeting 
of the ministers.” “ Very well,” I said. “If you will 
come up to Chicago Avenue Church Friday night at 
ten o’clock, we will have a prayer-meeting and if God 
keeps us all night, we will stay all night.” At ten 
o’clock on Friday night four or five hundred people 
gathered in the lecture-rooms of the Chicago Avenue 
Church. They were not all ministers. They were 
not all men. Satan made a mighty attempt to ruin the 
meeting. First of all three men got down by the door 
and knelt down by chairs and pounded and shouted 
until some of our heads seemed almost splitting, and 
some felt they must retire from the meeting ; and when 
a brother went to expostulate with them and urge them 
that things be done decently and in order, they swore 
at the brother who made the protest. Still later a man 
sprang up in the middle of the room and announced 
that he was Elijah. The poor man was insane. But 
these things were distracting, and there was more or 
less of confusion until nearly midnight, and some 
thought they would go home. But it is a poor meet- 


230 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


ing that the devil can spoil, and some of us were there 
for a blessing and determined to remain until we re- 
ceived it. About midnight God gave us complete vic- 
tory over all the discordant elements. ‘Then for two 
hours there was such praying as I have rarely heard in 
my life. A little after two o’clock in the morning a 
sudden hush fell upon the whole gathering; we were 
all on our knees at the time. No one could speak; 
no one could pray, no one could sing; all you could 
hear was the subdued sobbing of joy, unspeakable and 
full of glory. ‘The very air seemed tremulous with the 
presence of the Spirit of God. It was now Saturday 
morning. ‘The following morning, one of my deacons 
came to me and said, with bated breath, ‘ Brother 
Torrey, I shall never forget yesterday morning until 
the latest day of my life.’ But it was not by any 
means all emotion. There was solid reality that could 
be tested by practical tests. A man went out of that 
meeting in the early morning hours, took a train for 
Missouri. When he had transacted his business in 
the town that he visited, he asked the proprietor of 
the hotel if there was any meeting going on in the 
town at the time. He said, “ Yes, there is a pro- 
tracted meeting going on at the Cumberland Presby- 
terian Church.”? The man was himself a Cumberland 
Presbyterian. He went to the church and when the 
meeting was opened he arose in his place and asked the 
minister if he could speak. Permission was granted, 
and with the power of the Holy Spirit upon him, he so 
spoke that fifty-eight or fifty-nine persons professed to 
accept Christ on the spot. A young man went out of 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 231 


the meeting in the early morning hours and took a 
train for a city in Wisconsin, and I soon received word 
from that city that thirty-eight young men and boys 
had been converted while he spoke. Another young 
man, one of our students in the Institute, went to an- 
other part of Wisconsin, and soon I began to receive 
letters from ministers in that neighbourhood inquiring 
about him and telling how he had gone into the school- 
houses and churches and Soldiers’ Home and how there 
were conversions wherever he spoke. In the days that 
followed men and women from that meeting went out 
over the earth and I doubt if there was any country 
that I visited in my tour around the world, Japan, 
China, Australia, New Zealand, India, etc., in which I 
did not find some one who had gone out from that 
meeting with the power of God upon them. For me 
to doubt that God fills men with the Holy Spirit in 
answer to prayer would be thoroughly unscientific and 
irrational. I know He does. And in a matter like 
this, I would rather have one ounce of believing ex- 
perience than ten tons of unbelieving exegesis. 

_ 7. The seventh and last step is faith. We read in 
Mark xi. 24, “ Therefore I say unto you, What things 
soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive 
them and ye shall have them.”? No matter how definite 
God’s promises are, we only realize these promises 
experimentally when we believe. For example we 
read in James i. 5, R. V., “ But if any of you lacketh 
wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all 
liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given 
him.” Now that promise is as positive as a promise 


232 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


can be but we read in the following verses, ‘‘ But let 
him ask in faith nothing doubting: for he that doubteth 
is like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and 
tossed. For let not that man think that he shall re- 
ceive anything of the Lord; a double-minded man, 
unstable in all his ways.” The baptism with the 
Spirit, as we have already seen, is for those believers in 
Christ, who have put away all sin and surrendered ab- 
solutely to God, who ask for it, but even though we 
ask there will be no receiving if we do not believe. 
There are many who have met the other conditions of 
receiving the baptism with the Holy Spirit and yet do 
not receive, simply because they do not believe. ‘They 
do not expect to receive and they do not receive. But 
there is a faith that goes beyond expectation, a faith 
that puts out its hand and takes what it asks on the 
spot. This comes out in the Revised Version of 
Mark xi. 24, ‘‘ Therefore I say unto you, All things 
whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have re- 
ceived them and ye shall have them.” When we pray 
for the baptism with the Holy Spirit we should believe 
that we have received (that is that God has granted our 
prayer and therefore it is ours) and then we shall have 
the actual experience of that which we have asked. 
When the Revised Version came out, I was greatly 
puzzled about the rendering of Mark xi. 24. I had 
begun at the beginning of the New Testament and 
gone right through comparing the Authorized Ver- 
sion with the Revised and comparing both with the 
best Greek text, but when I reached this passage, I was 
greatly puzzled. I read the Authorized Version, 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 223 


“‘ What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe 
that ye receive them and ye shall have them,” and that 
seemed plain enough. ‘Then I turned to the Revised 
Version and read, “ All things whatsoever ye pray and 
ask for believe that ye have recetved them and ye shail 
have them.’ And [I said to myself, “ What a confu- 
sion of the tenses. Believe that ye have already re- 
ceived (past), and ye shall have afterwards (future). 
What nonsense.”” Then I turned to my Greek Testa- 
ment and [ found whether sense or nonsense, the 
Revised Version was the correct rendering of the 
Greek, but what it meant I did not know for years, 
But one time I was studying and expounding to my 
church the First Epistle of John. I came to the fifth 
chapter, the fourteenth and fifteenth verses (R. V.) and 
I read, *‘ And this is the boldness which we have to- 
wards Him, that, if we ask anything according to His 
will, He heareth us: and if we know that He heareth 
us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the 
petitions which we have asked of Him.”” ‘Then I un- 
derstood Mark xi. 24. Do you see it? If not, let me 
explain it a little further. When we come to God in 
prayer, the first question to ask is, Is that which I have 
asked of God according to His will? If it is promised 
in His Word, of course, we know it is according to 
His will. “Then we can say with 1 John v. 14, I have 
asked something according to His will and I know He: 
hears me. ‘Then we can go further and say with the 
fifteenth verse, Because I know He hears what I ask, I 
know I have the petition which I asked of Him. I 
may not have it in actual possession but I know it is 


234 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


mine because I have asked something according to His 
will and He has heard me and granted that which I 
have asked, and what I thus believe I have received 
because the Word of God says so, I shall afterwards 
have in actual experience. Now apply this to the 
matter before us. When I ask for the baptism with 
the Holy Spirit, | have asked something according to 
His will, for Luke xi. 13 and Acts li. 39 say so, there- 
fore I know my prayer is heard, and still further 1 know 
because the prayer is heard that I have the petition 
which I have asked of Him, zs. ¢., I know I have the 
baptism with the Holy Spirit. I may not feel it yet 
but I have received, and what I thus count mine rest- 
ing upon the naked word of God, I shall afterwards 
have in actual experience. Some years ago I went to 
the students’ conference at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, 
with Mr. F. B. Meyer, of London. Mr. Meyer spoke 
that night on the Baptism with the Holy Spirit. At 
the conclusion of his address, he said, ‘‘ If any of you 
wish to speak with Mr. Torrey or myself after the meet- 
ing is over, we will stay and speak with you.” A young 
man came to me who had just graduated from one of the 
Illinois colleges. He said, “I heard of this blessing 
thirty days ago and have been praying for it ever since 
but do not receive. What isthe trouble?” ‘Is your 
will laid down?” I asked. ‘No,’ he said, ‘* Il am 
afraid it is not.’ ‘* Then,” I said, ‘there is no use 
praying until your will is laid down. Will you lay 
down your will?”’ He said, “J cannot.’ ‘Are you 
willing that God should lay it down for you?” “I 
am.’ ‘Let us kneel and ask Him to do it.” We 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 235 


knelt side by side and I placed my Bible open at 1 John 
v. 14, 15 on the chair before him. He asked God to 
lay down his will for him and empty him of his self- 
will and to bring his will into conformity with the will 
of God. When he had finished the prayer, I said, 
“Ts itdone?’”’ He said, “It must be. I have asked 
something according to His will and I know He hears 
me and I know I have the petition I have asked. 
Yes, my will is laid down.” ‘¢ What is it you 
desire?” ‘* The baptism with the Holy Spirit.” 
*¢ Ask for it.”” Looking up to God he said, ‘* Heavenly 
Father, baptize me with the Holy Spirit now.” ‘ Did 
you get what you asked?” I asked. “I don’t feel 
it,” he replied. ‘That is not what I asked you,” I 
said. ‘* Read the verse before you,” and he read, “* This 
is the boldness which we have towards Him that if we 
ask anything according to His will He heareth us.” 
“What do you know?” I asked. He said, “I 
know if I ask anything according to His will He hears 
me.” ‘ What did you ask?” ‘J asked for the 
baptism with the Holy Spirit.” ‘ Is that according to 
Fis will 7)’ Yes, Acts ii. 39) says (so.’?) “What 
do you know then?”? “TI know He has heard me.” 
“Read on.” ‘And if we know that if He heareth 
us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the 
petitions which we have asked of Him.”’ ‘ What do 
you know?’ I asked. ‘I know I have the petition 
I asked of Him.” “What was the petition you 
asked of Him?” ‘The baptism with the Holy 
Spirit.” ‘*What do you know?” “I know I have 
the baptism with the Holy Spirit. I don’t feel it, 


236 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


but God says so.’’ We arose from our knees and 
after a short conversation separated. I left Lake 
Geneva the next morning, but returned in a few days. 
I met the young man and asked if he had really re- 
ceived the baptism with the Holy Spirit. He did not 
need to answer. His face told the story, but he did 
answer. He went into a theological seminary the 
following autumn, was given a church his junior year 
in the seminary, had conversions from the outset, and 
the next year on the Day of Prayer for Colleges, 
largely through his influence there came a mighty out- 
pouring of the Spirit upon the seminary of which the 
president of the seminary wrote to a denominational 
paper, that it was a veritable Pentecost, and it all came 
through this young man who received the baptism with 
the Holy Spirit through simple faith in the Word of 
God. Any one who will accept Jesus as their Saviour 
and their Lord, put away all sin out of their life, 
publicly confess their renunciation of sin and acceptance 
of Jesus Christ, surrender absolutely to God, and ask 
God for the baptism with the Holy Spirit, and take it 
by simple faith in the naked Word of God, can receive 
the baptism with the Holy Spirit right now. There 
are some who so emphasize the matter of absolute sur- 
render that they ignore, or even deny, the necessity of 
prayer. It is always unfortunate when one so em- 
phasizes one side of truth that he loses sight of another 
side which may be equally important. In this way, 
many lose the blessing which God has provided for 
them. 

The seven steps given above lead with abso- 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 237 


lute certainty into the blessing. But several questions 
arise : 

1. Must we not wait until we know we have re- 
ceived the baptism with the Holy Spirit before we take up 
Christian work? Yes, but how shall we know? 
There are two ways of knowing anything in the Chris- 
tian life. First, by the Word of God; second, by ex- 
perience or feeling. God’s order is to know things 
first of all by the Word of God. How one may know 
by the Word of God that they have received the bap- 
tism with the Holy Spirit has just been told. We 
have a right when we have met the conditions and have 
definitely asked for the baptism with the Holy Spirit to 
say, ‘¢ It is mine,” and to get up and go on in our work 
leaving the matter of experience to God’s time and 
place. We get assurance that we have received the 
baptism with the Holy Spirit in precisely the same 
way that we get assurance of our salvation. When an 
inquirer comes to you, whom you have reason to be- 
lieve really has received Jesus but who lacks assurance, 
what do you do with him? Do you tell him to kneel 
down and pray until he gets assurance? Not if you 
know how to deal with a soul. ‘You know that true 
assurance comes through the Word of God, that it ts 
through what is ** written ” that we are to know that we 
have eternal life (1 John v. 13). So you take the in- 
quirer to the written Word. For example, you take 
him to John iii. 36. You tell him to readit. He 
reads, ‘* He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting 
life.’ You ask him, “* Who has everlasting life?” 
He replies from the passage before him, ‘‘ He that be- 


238 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


lieveth on the Son.’ ‘* How many who believe on the 
Son have everlasting life?’ ‘* Every one that believes 
on the Son.” ‘Do you know this to be true?” 
Shives..h iS Whyie i 3 Because: : God > savannas 
*“What does God say?” ‘God says, ‘ He that be- 
lieveth on the Son hath everlasting life.?””? ‘Do you 
believe on the Son?” “Yes.” “What have you 
then?’ He ought to say, “ Everlasting life,”’ but quite 
likely he will not. He may say, “‘I wish I had ever- 
lasting life.’ ‘You point him again to the verse and 
by questions bring out what it says, and you hold him 
to it until he sees that he has everlasting life; sees 
that he has everlasting life simply because God says so. 
After he has assurance on the ground of the Word, he 
will have assurance by personal experience, by the 
testimony of the Spirit in his heart. Now you should 
deal with yourself in precisely the same way about the 
baptism with the Holy Spirit. Hold yourself to the 
word found in 1 John v. 14, 15, and know that you 
have the baptism with the Spirit simply because God 
says so in His Word, whether you feel it or not. 
Afterwards you will know it by experience. God’s 
order is always: first, His Word; second, belief in His 
Word; third, experience, or feeling. We desire to 
change God’s order, and have first, His Word, then 
feeling, then we will believe. But God demands that 
we believe on His naked Word. ‘“ Abraham believed 
God and it was accounted to him for righteousness ” 
(Gal. iti. 6; cf. Gen. xv. 6). Abraham had as yet no 
feeling in his body of new life and power. He just be- 
lieved God and feeling came afterwards. God demands 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 239 


of us to-day, as He did Abraham of old, that we simply 
take Him at His Word and count the thing ours which 
He has promised, simply because He has promised it. 
Afterwards we get the feeling and the realization of 
that which He has promised. 

2. The second question that some will ask is, 
“* Will there be no manifestation of the baptism with the 
Spirit which we receive? Will everything be just as it 
was before, and if it will, where is the reality and use 
of the baptism?’’ Yes, there will be manifestation, 
very definite manifestation, but bear in mind what the 
character of the manifestation will be, and when the 
manifestation is to be expected. When is the mani- 
festation to be expected? After we believe. After we 
have received on simple faith in the naked Word of 
God. And what will be the character of the manifes- 
tation? Here many go astray. They have read the 
wonderful experiences of Charles G. Finney, John 
Wesley, D. L. Moody and others. These men tell 
us that when they were baptized with the Holy Spirit 
they had wonderful sensations. Finney, for example, 
describes it as like great waves of electricity sweeping 
over him, so that he was compelled to ask God to with- 
hold His hand, lest he die on the spot. Mr. Moody, 
on rare occasions, described a similar experience. 
That these men had such experiences, I do not for a 
moment question. The word of such men as 
Charles G. Finney, D. L. Moody and others is to 
be believed, and there is another reason why I cannot 
question the reality of these experiences, but while 
these men doubtless had these experiences, there is not 


240 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


a passage in the Bible that describes such an experi- 
ence. I am inclined to think the Apostles had them, 
but if they had, they kept them to themselves and it is 
well that they did, for ifthey had put them on record, 
that is what we would be looking forto-day. But what 
are the manifestations that actually occurred in the case 
of the Apostles and the early disciples? New power 
in the Lord’s work. We read at Pentecost that they 
were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak 
with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance 
(Acts ii. 4). Similar accounts are given of what oc- 
curred in the household of Cornelius and what occurred 
in Ephesus. All we read in the case of the Apostle 
Paul is that Ananias came in and said, ‘* Brother Saul, 
the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the 
way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest 
receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.” 
Then Ananias baptized him, and the next thing we read 
is that Paul went straight down to the synagogue and 
preached Christ so mightily in the power of the Spirit 
that he “¢ confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, 
proving that this is very Christ’ (Acts ix. 17-22). So 
right through the New Testament, the manifestation that 
we are taught to expect, and the manifestation that 
actually occurred was new power in Christian work, and 
that is the manifestation that we may expect to-day and 
we need not look too carefully for that. The thing for 
us to do is to claim God’s promise and let God take 
care of the mode of manifestation. 

3. The third question that will arise with some is, 
May we not have to wait for the baptism with the Holy 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 241 


Spirit? Did not the Apostles have to wait ten days, 
and may we not have to wait ten days or even more? 
No, there is no necessity that we wait. We are told 
distinctly in the Bible why the Apostles had to wait ten 
days. In Acts ii. 1, we read, “ And when the day of 
Pentecost was fully come” (literally ““ When the day 
of Pentecost was being fulfilled,’ R. V., margin). Way 
back in the Old Testament types, and back of that in 
the eternal counsels of God, the day of Pentecost was 
set for the coming of the Holy Spirit and the gathering 
of the church, and the Holy Spirit could not be given 
until the day of Pentecost was fully come, therefore 
the Apostles had to wait until the day of Pentecost was 
fulfilled, but there was no waiting after Pentecost. 
There was no waiting for example in Acts iv. 31; 
scarcely had they finished the prayer when the place 
where they were gathered together was shaken and 
“‘they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.” There 
was no waiting in the household of Cornelius. They 
were listening to their first Gospel sermon and Peter 
said as the climax of his argument “to Him (that is 
Jesus) bear all the prophets witness that through His 
name every one that believeth on Him shall receive 
remission of sins” (R. V.), and no sooner had Peter 
spoken these words than they believed and “the Holy 
Ghost fell on them which heard the word.’ There 
was no waiting in Samaria after Peter and John came 
down and told them about the baptism with the Holy 
Spirit and prayed with them. There was no waiting 
in Ephesus after Paul came and told them that there 
was not only the baptism of Johnunto repentance, but the 


242 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


baptism of Jesus in the Holy Spirit. It is true that 
they had been waiting some time until then, but it was 
simply because they did not know that there was such 
a baptism for them. And many may wait to-day be- 
cause they do not know that there is the baptism with 
the Spirit for them, or they may have to wait because 
they are not resting in the finished work of Christ, or 
because they have not put away sin, or because they 
have not surrendered fully to God, or because they will 
not definitely ask and believe and take; but the reason 
for the waiting is not in God, it is in ourselves. Any 
one who will, can lay this book down at this point, take 
the steps which have been stated and immediately re- 
ceive the baptism with the Holy Spirit. I would not 
say a word to dissuade men from spending much time 
in waiting upon God in prayer for ‘ They that wait 
upon the Lord shall renew their strength ” (Isa. xl. 31). 
There are few of us indeed in these days who spend as 
many hours as we should in waiting upon God. The 
writer can bear joyful testimony to the manifest out- 
pourings of the Spirit that have come time and again as 
he has waited upon God through the hours of the night 
with believing brethren, but the point | would empha- 
size is that the baptism with the Holy Spirit may be 
had at once. ‘The Bible proves this; experience proves 
it. ‘There are many waiting for feeling who ought to 
be claiming by faith. In these days we hear of many 
who say they are ‘‘ waiting for their Pentecost’ ; some 
have been waiting weeks, some have been waiting 
months, some have been waiting years. ‘This is not 
Scriptural and it is dishonouring to God. ‘These 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 243 


brethren have an unscriptural view of what constitutes 
Pentecost. ‘They have fixed it in their minds that cer- 
tain manifestations are to occur and as these particular 
manifestations, which they themselves have prescribed, 
do not come, they think they have not received the 
Holy Spirit. “There are many who have been led into 
the error, already confuted in this book, that the bap- 
tism with the Holy Spirit always manifests itself in the 
gift of tongues. They have not received the gift of 
tongues and therefore they conclude that they have not 
received the baptism with the Holy Spirit. But as already” 
seen, one may receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit and 
not receive the gift of tongues. Others still are waiting 
for some ecstatic feeling. We do not need to waitat all. 
We may meet the conditions, we may claim the bless- 
ing at once on the ground of God’s sure Word. There 
was a time in the writer’s ministry when he was led to 
say that he would never enter his pulpit again until he 
had been definitely baptized with the Holy Spirit and 
knew it, or until God in some way told him to go. I 
shut myself up in my study and day by day waited 
upon God for the baptism with the Holy Spirit. It 
was a time of struggle. The thought would arise, 
“Suppose you do not receive the baptism with the Holy 
Spirit before Sunday. How it will look for you to re- 
fuse to go into your pulpit,” but I held fast to my reso- 
lution. I had a more or less definite thought in my 
mind of what might happen when I was baptized with 
the Holy Spirit, but it did not come that way at all. 
One morning as I waited upon God, one of the quiet- 
est and calmest moments of my life, it was just as if 


244 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


God said to me, “ The blessing is yours. Now go 
and preach.” If I had known my Bible then as I know 
it now, I might have heard that voice the very first day 
speaking to me through the Word, but I did not know 
it and God in His infinite condescension, looking upon 
my weakness, spoke it directly to my heart. There 
was no particular ecstasy or emotion, simply the calm 
assurance that the blessing was mine. I went into my 
work and God manifested His power in that work. 
Some time passed, I do not remember just how long, 
and I was sitting in that same study. I do not remem- 
ber that I was thinking about this subject at all, but 
suddenly it was just as if I] had been knocked out of my 
chair on to the floor, and I lay upon my face crying, 
“ Glory to God! Glory to God!” I could not stop. 
Some power, not my own, had taken possession of my 
lips and my whole person. ‘The writer is not of an 
excitable, hysterical or even emotional temperament, 
but I lost control of myself absolutely. I had never 
shouted before in my life, but I could not stop. When 
after awhile I got control of myself, I went to my wife 
and told her what had happened. I tell this experience, 
not to magnify it, but to say that the time when this 
wonderful experience (which I cannot really fully 
describe) came was not the moment when I was bap- 
tized with the Holy Spirit. "The moment when I was 
baptized with the Holy Spirit was in that calm hour 
when God said, “It is yours. Now go and preach.” 
There is an afternoon that I shall never forget. It 
was the eighth day of July, 1894. It was at the North- 
field Students’ Convention. I had spoken that morn- 


The Baptism With the Holy Spirit 245 


ing in the church on How to Receive the Baptism with 
the Holy Spirit. As I drew to a close, I took out my 
watch and noticed that it was exactly twelve o’clock. 
Mr. Moody had invited us to go up on the mountain 
that afternoon at three o’clock to wait upon God for 
the baptism with the Holy Spirit. As I looked at my 
watch, I said, ‘“‘ Gentlemen, it is exactly twelve o’clock. 
Mr. Moody has invited us to go up on the mountain at 
three o’clock to wait upon God for the baptism with 
the Holy Spirit. It is three hours until three o’clock. 
Some of you cannot wait three hours, nor do you need 
to wait. Go to your tent, go to your room in the hotel 
or in the buildings, go out into the woods, go anywhere, 
where you can get alone with God, meet the conditions 
of the baptism with the Holy Spirit and claim it at 
once.” At three o’clock we gathered in front of Mr. 
Moody’s mother’s house; four hundred and fifty-six of 
us in all, all men from the eastern colleges. (I know 
the number because Mr. Paul Moody counted us as we 
passed through the gates down into the lots.) We 
commenced to climb the mountainside. After we had 
gone some distance, Mr. Moody said, *¢ I do not think we 
need to go further. Let us stop here.”’ We sat down 
and Mr. Moody said, “¢ Have any of you anything to 
say?’ One after another, perhaps seventy-five men, 
arose and said words to this effect, “‘I could not wait 
until three o’clock. I have been alone with God and 
I have received the baptism with the Holy Spirit.” 
Then Mr. Moody said, ‘‘ I can see no reason why we 
should not kneel right down here now and ask God 
that the Holy Spirit may fall on us as definitely as He 


246 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


fell on the Apostles at Pentecost. Let us pray.” We 
knelt down on the ground; some of us lay on our 
faces on the pine-needles. As we had gone up the 
mountainside, a cloud had been gathering over the 
mountain, and as we began to pray the cloud broke and 
the rain-drops began to come down upon us through 
the overhanging pine trees, but another cloud, big with 
mercy, had been gathering over Northfield for ten days 
and our prayers seemed to pierce that cloud and the 
Holy Ghost fell upon us. It was a wonderful hour. 
There are many who will never forget it. But any 
one who reads this book may have a similar hour alone 
by himself now. He can take the seven steps one by 
one and the Holy Spirit will fall upon him. 


XXI 


The Work of the Holy Spirit in Prophets and 
Apostles 


pee work of the Holy Spirit im apostles and 
prophets ts an entirely distinctive work. He im- 
parts to apostles and prophets an especial gift for 

an especial purpose. 
We reads int) Cor, ixity A, S17, 28,),.20,) Ria Vi, 
“ Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same 
Spirit. . . . For to one is given through the Spirit 
wisdom; and to another the word of knowledge, ac- 
cording to the same Spirit ; to another faith, in the same 
Spirit; and to another gifts of healings, in the one 
Spirit; and to another workings of miracles; and to 
another prophecy ; and to another discerning of spirits : 
to another divers kinds of tongues; and to another the 
interpretation of tongues: but all these worketh the 
one and the same Spirit, dividing to each severally even 
as He will. . . . And God hath set some in the 
church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, 
then miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, 
divers kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all 
prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of mir- 
acles? Have all gifts of healings? Do all speak 
with tongues? do all interpret?” It is evident from 

24] 


248 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


these verses that the work of the Holy Spirit in apostles 
and prophets is of a distinctive character. 

The doctrine is becoming very common and very 
popular in our day that the work of the Holy Spirit in 
preachers and teachers and in ordinary believers, illumi- 
nating them and guiding them into the truth and open- 
ing their minds to understand the Word of God is the 
same in kind and differs only in degree from the work 
of the Holy Spirit in prophets and apostles. It is 
evident from the passage just cited that this doctrine is 
thoroughly unscriptural and untrue. It overlooks the 
fact so clearly stated and carefully elucidated that while 
there is “the same Spirit’ there are “diversities of 
gifts” ‘diversities of administrations” “ diversities of 
workings”? (1 Cor. xii. 4-6) and that “not all are 
prophets ’’ and “not all are apostles ” (1 Cor. xii. 29). 
A very scholarly and brilliant preacher seeking to mini- 
mize the difference between the work of the Holy 
Spirit in apostles and prophets and His work in other 
men calls attention to the fact that the Bible says that 
Bezaleel was to be “ filled with the Spirit of God ” to 
devise the work of the tabernacle (Ex. xxxi. I-I1). 
He gives this as a proof that the inspiration of the 
prophet does not differ from the inspiration of the artist 
or architect, but in doing this, he loses sight of the fact 
that the tabernacle was to be built after the “ pattern 
shown to Moses in the Mount” (Ex. xxv. 9, 40) and 
that therefore it was itself a prophecy and an exposi- 
tion of the truth of God. It was not mere architecture. 
It was the Word of God done into wood, gold, silver, 
brass, cloth, skin, etc. And Bezaleel needed as much 


) 


The Holy Spirit in Prophets and Apostles 249 


special inspiration to reveal the truth in wood, gold, 
silver, brass, etc., as the apostle or prophet needs it to 
reveal the Word of God with pen and ink on parch- 
ment. ‘There is much reasoning in these days about 
inspiration that appears at first sight very learned, but 
that will not bear much rigid scrutiny or candid com- 
parison with the exact statements of the Word of God. 
There is nothing in the Bible more inspired than the 
tabernacle, and if the Destructive Critics would study 
it more, they would give up their ingenious but untena- 
ble theories as to the composite structure of the 
Pentateuch. 

2. Truth hidden from man for ages and which 
they had not discovered and could not discover by the 
unaided processes of human reasoning has been re- 
vealed to apostles and prophets in the Spirit. 

We read in Eph. iti. 3-5, R. V., “ By revelation 
was made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore 
in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye can perceive 
my understanding in the mystery of Christ ; which in 
other generations was not made known unto the sons of 
men, as it hath now been revealed unto His holy Apostles 
and prophets in the Spirit.” The Bible contains truth 
that men had never discovered before the Bible stated 
it. It contains truth that men never could have dis- 
covered if left to themselves. Our heavenly Father, in 
great grace, has revealed this truth to us His children 
through His servants, the apostles and the prophets. The 
Holy Spirit is the agent of this revelation. “There are 
many who tell us to-day that we should test the state- 
ments of Scripture by the conclusions of human 


250 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


reasoning or by the “ Christian consciousness.” The 
folly of all this is evident when we bear in mind that 
the revelation of God transcends human reasoning, and 
that any consciousness that is not the product of the 
study and absorption of Bible truth is not really a 
Christian consciousness. The fact that the Bible does 
contain truth that man never had discovered we know 
not merely because it is so stated in the Scriptures, but 
we know it also as a matter of fact. There is not one 
of the most distinctive and precious doctrines taught in 
the. Bible that men have ever discovered apart from the 
Bible. If our consciousness differs from the state- 
ments of this Book, which is so plainly God’s Book, it 
is not yet fully Christian and the thing to do is not to 
try to pull God’s revelation down to the level of our 
consciousness but to tone our consciousness up to the 
level of God’s Word. 

3- The revelation made to the prophets was in- 
dependent of their own thinking. It was made to them 
by the Spirit of Christ which was in them. And was 
a subject of inquiry to their own mind as to tts mean- 
ing. It was not their own thought, but His, 

We read in 1 Peter i. 10, Ty 2, (RY Vi Conger 
ing which salvation the prophets sought and searched 
diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come 
unto you: searching what time or what manner of time 
the Spirit of Christ which was in them did point unto, 
when it (He) testified beforehand the sufferings of 
Christ, and the glories that should follow them. 7» 
whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto 
you, did they minister these things, which now have 


The Holy Spirit in Prophets and Apostles 251 


been announced unto you through them that preached 
the Gospel unto you dy the Holy Ghost sent forth from 
heaven; which things angels desire to look into.” 
These words make it plain that a Person in the 
prophets, and independent of the prophets, and that 
Person the Holy Spirit, revealed truth which was in- 
dependent of their own thinking, which they did not 
altogether understand themselves, and regarding which 
it was necessary that they make diligent search and 
study. Another Person than themselves was thinking 
and speaking and they were seeking to comprehend 
what He said. 

4. No prophet’s utterance was of the prophet’s own 
will, but he spoke from God, and the prophet was 
carried along in his utterance by the Holy Spirit. 

We read in 2 Peteri. 21, R. V., “For xo prophecy 
ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, 
being moved by the Holy Ghost.” Clearly then, the 
prophet was simply an instrument in the hands of an- 
other, as the Spirit of God carried him along, so he 
spoke. 

5. Jt was the Holy Spirit who spoke in the pro- 
phetic utterances. It was His word that was upon the 
prophet’s tongue. 

We read in Heb. iii. 7, ‘Wherefore as the Holy 
Ghost saith, To-day if ye will hear His voice.” Again 
we read in Heb. x. 15, 16, “* Whereof the Holy Ghost 
also is a witness to us: for after that He had said before, 
This is the covenant that I will make with them after 
those days, saith the Lord. I will put My laws into 
their hearts, and in their minds will I write them.” 


252 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


We read again in Acts xxviii. 25, R. V., “* And when 
they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after 
that Paul had spoken the word, ‘ Well spake the Holy 
Ghost by Isaiah the prophet unto your fathers saying, 
etc. still again we read in 2 Sam. xxiii. 2, R. Vig 
“The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word was 
upon my tongue.” Over and over again in these pas- 
sages we are told that it was the Holy Spirit who was 
the speaker in the prophetic utterances and that it was 
His word, not theirs, that was upon the prophet’s 
tongue. ‘Ihe prophet was simply the mouth by which 
the Holy Spirit spoke. As a man, that is except as the 
Spirit taught him and used him, the prophet might be as 
fallible as other men are but when the Spirit was upon 


7939 


him and he was taken up and borne along by the Holy 
Spirit, he was infallible in his teachings ; for his teach- 
ings in that case were not his own, but the teachings of 
the Holy Spirit. When thus borne along by the Holy 
Spirit it was God who was speaking and not the 
prophet. For example, there can be little doubt that 
Paul had many mistaken notions about many things but 
when he taught as an Apostle in the Spirit’s power, he 
was infallible—or rather the Spirit, who taught through 
him was infallible and the consequent teaching was in- 
fallible—as infallible as God Himself. We do well 
therefore to carefully distinguish what Paul may have 
thought as a man and what he actually did teach as an 
Apostle. In the Bible we have the record of what he 
taught as an Apostle. There are those who think that 
in I Cor. vii. 6, 25, “ But I speak this by permission, 
not ofcommandment . . . yet I give my judgment 


The Holy Spirit in Prophets and Apostles 253 


as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord,” Paul ad- 
mits that he was not sure in this case that he had the 
word of the Lord. If this be the true interpretation of 
the passage (which is more than doubtful) we see how 
careful Paul was when he was not sure to note the fact 
and this gives us additional certainty in all other pas- 
sages. It is sometimes said that Paul taught in his 
early ministry that the Lord would return during his 
lifetime, and that in this he was, of course, mistaken. 
But Paul never taught anywhere that the Lord would 
return in his lifetime. It is true he says in 1 Thess. 
iv. 17, % Then we which are alive and remain, shall be 
caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the 
air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” As he 
was still living when he wrote the words, he naturally 
and properly did not include himself with those who 
had already fallen asleep in speaking of the Lord’s re- 
turn. But this is not to assert that he would remain 
alive until the Lord came. Quite probably at this 
period of his ministry he entertained the hope that he 
might remain alive and consequently lived in an atti- 
tude of expectancy, but the attitude of expectancy is 
the true attitude in all ages for each believer. It is 
quite probable that Paul expected that he would be 
alive to the coming of the Lord, but if he did so ex- 
pect, he did not so teach. The Holy Spirit kept him 
from this as from all other errors in his teachings. 

6. The Holy Spirit in the Apostle taught not only 
the thought (or “ concept”) but the words in whieh the 
thought was to be expressed. We read in 1 Cor. il. 13, 
A. R. V., “ Which things also we speak not zm words 


254 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit 
teacheth combining spiritual things with spiritual 
words.” ‘This passage clearly teaches that the words, 
as well as the thought, were chosen and taught by the 
Holy Spirit. This is also a necessary inference from 
the fact that thought is conveyed from mind to mind 
by words and it is the words which express the thought, 
and if the words were imperfect, the thought expressed 
in these words would necessarily be imperfect and to 
that extent be untrue. Nothing could be plainer than 
Paul’s statement ‘7m words which the Spirit teacheth.” 
The Holy Spirit has Himself anticipated all the modern 
ingenious and wholly unbiblical and false theories re- 
garding His own work in the Apostles. The more 
carefully and minutely we study the wording of the 
statements of this wonderful Book, the more we will 
become convinced of the marvellous accuracy of the 
words used to express the thought. Very often the 
solution of an apparent difficulty is found in studying 
the exact words used. The accuracy, precision and 
inerrancy of the exact words used is amazing. To the 
superficial student, the doctrine of verbal inspiration 
may appear questionable or even absurd; any regener- 
ated and Spirit-taught man, who ponders the words of 
the Scripture day after day and year after year, will be- 
come convinced that the wisdom of God is in the very 
words, as well as in the thought which the words en- 
deavour to convey. A change of a word, or letter, or 
a tense, or case, or number, in many instances would 
land us into contradiction or untruth, but taking the 
words exactly as written, difficulties disappear and truth 


The Holy Spirit in Prophets and Apostles 255 


shines forth. ‘The Divine origin of nature shines forth 
more clearly in the use of a microscope as we see the 
perfection of form and adaptation of means to end of 
the minutest particles of matter. In a similar manner, 
the Divine origin of the Bible shines forth more clearly 
under the microscope as we notice the perfection with 
which the turn of a word reveals the absolute thought 
of God. 

But some one may ask, “If the Holy Spirit is the 
author of the words of Scripture, how do we account 
for variations in style and diction? How do we ex- 
plain for instance that Paul always used Pauline lan- 
guage and John Johannean language, etc.?”? ‘The an- 
swer to this is very simple. If we could not account 
at all for this fact, it would have but little weight 
against the explicit statement of God’s Word with any 
one who is humble enough and wise enough to recog- 
nize that there are a great many things which he can- 
not account for at all which could be easily accounted 
for if he knew more. But these variations are easily 
accounted for. “The Holy Spirit is quite wise enough 
and has quite facility enough in the use of language in 
revealing truth to and through any given individual, to 
use words, phrases and forms of expression and idioms 
in that person’s vocabulary and forms of thought, and 
to make use of that person’s peculiar individuality. In- 
deed, it is a mark of the Divine wisdom of this Book 
that the same truth is expressed with absolute accuracy 
in such widely variant forms of expression. 

7. The utterances of the Apostles and the prophets 
were the Word of God. When we read these words, 


256 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


we are listening not to the voice of man, but to the 
vorce of God. 

We read in Mark vii. 13, “ Making the word of God 
of none effect, through your tradition, which ye have 
delivered; and many such like things do ye.” Jesus 
had been setting the law given through Moses over 
against the Pharisaic traditions, and in doing this, He 
expressly says in-this passage that the law given through 
Moses was “ the word of God.” In 2 Sam. xxiii. 25 
we read, “ The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and 
fits word was in my tongue.” Here again we are told 
that the utterance of God’s prophet was the word of 
God. In a similar way God says in x Thess. ii. 13, 
“‘For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, 
because, when ye received the word of God which ye 
heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but 
as It is im truth, the word of God, which effectually 
worketh also in you that believe.” Here Paul declares 
that the word which he spoke, taught by the Spirit of 
God, was the very word of God. 


XXII 
The Work of the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ 


festation in history of the complete work of the 
Holy Spirit in man. 

1. ‘Fesus Christ was begotten of the Holy Spirit. We 
read in Luke i. 35, R. V., “6 And the angel answered 
and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon 
thee; and the power of the Most High shall over- 
shadow thee: wherefore also that which is to be born 
shall be called holy, the Son of God.” As we have 
already seen, in regeneration the believer is begotten of 
God, but Jesus Christ was begotten of God in His 
original generation. He is the only begotten Son of 
God (John iii. 16). It was entirely by the Spirit’s 
power working in Mary that the Son of God was 
formed within her. The regenerated man has a carnal 
nature received from his earthly father and a new na- 
ture imparted by God. Jesus Christ had only the one 
holy nature, that which in man is called the new nature. 
Nevertheless, He was a real man as He had a human 
mother. 

2. “Fesus Christ led a holy and spotless life and offered 
Himself without spot to God through the working of the 
Holy Spirit. We read in Heb. ix. 14, “ How much 
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal 

257 


J ie CHRIST Himself is the one perfect mani- 


258 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your con- 
science from dead works to serve the living God.” 
Jesus Christ met and overcame temptations as other 
men may meet and overcome them, in the power of 
the Holy Spirit. He was tempted and suffered through 
temptation (Heb. iii. 18), He was tempted in all 
points like as we are (Heb. iv. 15), but never once in 
any way did He yield to temptation. He was tempted 
entirely apart from sin (Heb. iv. 15), but He won His 
victories in a way that is open for all of us to win vic- 
tory, in the power of the Holy Spirit. 

3. Jesus Christ was anointed and fitted for service by 
the Holy Spirit. We read in Acts x. 38, “ How God 
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and 
with power: who went about doing good, and healing 
all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with 
Him.” In a prophetic vision of the coming Messiah 
in the Old Testament we read in Isa. Ixi. 1, *¢ The 
Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lorp hath 
anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; 
He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to 
proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the 
prison to them that are bound.” In Luke’s record of 
the earthly life of our Lord in Luke iv. 14, we read 
‘“And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into 
Galilee, and there went out a fame of Him through all 
the region round about.” Ina similar way Jesus said 
of Himself when speaking in the synagogue in 
Nazareth, “ The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, be- 
cause He hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto 
the poor; He hath sent Me to proclaim release to the 


Work of the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ 259 


Captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at 
liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable 
year of the Lord” (Luke iv. 18, 19, R. V.). All 
these passages contain the one lesson, that it was by the 
especial anointing with the Holy Spirit that Jesus 
Christ was qualified for the service to which God had 
called Him. As He stood in the Jordan after His 
baptism, “The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily 
Shape like a dove upon Him,” and it was then and 
there that He was anointed with the Holy Spirit, 
baptized with the Holy Spirit, and equipped for the 
service that lay before Him. Jesus Christ received 
His equipment for service in the same way that we re- 
ceive ours by a definite baptism with the Holy Spirit. 

4. Fesus Christ was led by the Holy Spirit in His 
movements here upon earth. We read in Luke iv. 1, 
R. V., ‘ And Jesus full of the Holy Ghost returned from 
Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness.” 
Living as a man here upon earth and setting an ex- 
ample for us, each step of His life was under the Holy 
Spirit’s guidance. 

5. Jesus Christ was taught by the Spirit who rested 
upon Him. The Spirit of God was the source of His 
wisdom in the days of His flesh. Inthe Old Testament 
prophecy of the coming Messiah we read in Isa. xi. 
2, 3, “ And the Spirit of the Lorv shall rest upon Him, 
the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of 
counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the 
fear of the Lorp. And shall make Him of quick un- 
derstanding in the fear of the Lorn: and He shall not 
judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after 


260 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


the hearing of His ears.” Further on in Isa. xlii. 
1, R. V., we read, “¢ Behold My servant, whom I up- 
hold; My chosen in whom My soul delighteth; J 
have put My Spirit upon Him; He shall bring forth 
judgment to the Gentiles, etc.” Matthew tells us in 
Matt. xii. 17, 18, that this prophecy was fulfilled in 
Jesus of Nazareth. 

6. The Holy Spirit abode upon Fesus in all His full- 
ness and the words He spoke in consequence were the very 
words of Ged. We read in John iii. 34, R. V., “ For 
He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for 
He giveth not the Spirit by measure.” 

7. After His resurrection, "Fesus Christ gave com- 
mandment unto His Apostles whom He had chosen through 
the Holy Spirit. We read in Acts i. 2, ‘ Until the day 
in which He was taken up, after that He through the 
Holy Ghost had given commandment unto the Apostles 
whom He had chosen.” ‘This relates to the time 
after His resurrection and so we see Jesus still working 
in the power of the Holy Spirit even after His resurrec- 
tion from the dead. 

8. Fesus Christ wrought His miracles here on earth 
in the power of the Holy Spirit. In Matt. xii. 28, we 
read, ‘I cast out devils by the power of the Spirit of 
God.” It is through the Spirit that miracle working 
power was given to some in the church after our Lord’s 
departure from this earth (1 Cor. xii. 9, 10), and in the 
power of the same Spirit, Jesus Christ wrought His 
miracles. 

9.* It was by the power of the Holy Spirit that Fesus 
Christ was raised from the dead. We read in Rom. 


Work of the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ 261 


vill. 11, “ But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Fesus 
from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ 
from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies 
by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” 

The same Spirit who is to quicken our mortal bodies 
and is to raise us up in some future day raised up 
Jesus. 

Several things are plainly evident from this study of 
the work of the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ : 

First of all, we see the completeness of His human- 
ity. He lived and He thought, He worked, He taught, 
He conquered sin and won victories for God in the 
power of that very same Spirit whom it is our privilege 
also to have. 

In the second place, we see our own utter depend- 
ence upon the Holy Spirit. If it was in the power of 
the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ, the only begotten 
Son of God, lived and worked, achieved and triumphed, 
how much more dependent are we upon Him at every 
turn of life and in every phase of service and every ex- 
perience of conflict with Satan and sin. 

The third thing that is evident is the wondrous 
world of privilege, blessing and victory and conquest 
that is open to us. The same Spirit by which Jesus 
was originally begotten, is at our disposal for us to be 
begotten again of Him. The same Spirit by which 
Jesus offered Himself without spot to God is at our 
disposal that we also may offer ourselves without spot 
to Him. The same Spirit by which Jesus was anointed 
for service is at our disposal that we may be anointed 
for service. ‘The same Spirit who led Jesus Christ in 


262 The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 


His movements here on earth is ready to lead us to- 
day. The same Spirit who taught Jesus and imparted 
to Him wisdom and understanding, counsel and might, 
and knowledge and the fear of the Lord is here to teach 
us. Jesus Christ is our pattern (1 John ii. 6), “the 
first born among many brethren” (Rom. viii. 29). 
Whatever He realized through the Holy Spirit is for 
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